About the Author:
John F. Freeman is the founder and president emeritus of the Wyoming Community Foundation. He has a PhD in early modern European history from the University of Michigan and is the author of High Plains Horticulture: A History, Black Hills Forestry: A History, and Persistent Progressives: The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.
Review:
"Persistent Progressives offers a perspective on issues that remain relevant despite many cultural and economic changes since farmers first arrived in the Valley. In a democracy, cooperative effort still has an important role to play."
—The Valley Courier
"Highly readable and meticulously cited, Freeman engages the reader with stories of ideology, innovation, and political struggle during an era where fossil-fuel-based mechanization and the lure of urban living dramatically reshaped the scale and goals of agricultural production and rural life. The book provides fascinating and telling accounts of how the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union has struggled to bridge urban and rural interests, right-wing Libertarians and left-wing liberals, and farmers’ market foodies and growers of staple commodity crops. Throughout, Freeman underscores the fragility and power of voluntary, cooperative, and persistent efforts to improve life for common people and the land on which they depend."
—Timothy Crews, Director of Research, The Land Institute
"[F]or readers looking for examples of how farmers and consumers resisted the 'bigger is better' mantra within American agriculture during the twentieth century, Persistent Progressives offers great utility."
—Agricultural History
"[Freeman] provides. . . . insight not only to those interested in the history of the [Rocky Mountain Farmer's Union] but to anyone interested in the struggles of small farmers and ranchers and grass-roots progressive movements."
—New Mexico Historical Review
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