Broken Heartland - Hardcover

Osha Gray Davidson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0029070554 ISBN 13: 9780029070550

Publisher: Free Press, 1990

Synopsis

Looks at the disintegration of rural communities, argues that the farm crisis is part of a larger economic battle, and suggests reforms

About this title

From the Back Cover

Between 1940 and the mid 1980s, farm production expenses in America's Heartland tripled, capital purchases quadrupled, interest payments jumped tenfold, profits fell 10 percent, the number of farmers decreased by two-thirds, and nearly every farming community lost population, businesses, and economic stability. Growth for these desperate communities has come to mean low-paying part-time jobs, expensive tax concessions, waste dumps, and industrial hog farming, all of which come with environmental and psychological price tags. In Broken Heartland, Osha Gray Davidson chronicles the decline of the Heartland and its transformation into a bitterly divided and isolated regional ghetto. Through interviews with more than two hundred farmers, social workers, government officials, and scholars, he puts a human face on the farm crisis of the 1980s. In this expanded edition, Davidson emphasizes the tenacious power of far-right-wing groups; his chapter on these burgeoning rural organizations in the original edition of Broken Heartland was the first in-depth look - six years before the Oklahoma City bombing - at the politics of hate they nurture. He also spotlights NAFTA, hog lots, sustainable agriculture, and the other battles and changes over the past six years in rural America.

About the Author

Osha Gray Davidson is a journalist and author of four other books, including"The Enchanted Braid: Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef" and "Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control".

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0029070554
• ISBN 13: 9780029070550
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 219