If you are like me, and are interested in writings about place, land, American history, and community, then I would encourage you to pick up a copy of American Georgics: Writings on Farming, Culture, and the Land. I have not read it yet, but it looks like a great collection of primary sources on the agrarian tradition. It is published by Yale University Press and edited by Edwin C. Hagenstein, Brian Donahue, and Sara Gregg.
The reader includes essays by: Crevecouer, Alexander Hamilton, John Taylor of Caroline, James Madison, Edmund Ruffin, Jesse Buel, Lousia May Alcott, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, Willa Cather, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Henry Wallace, H.L. Mencken, Ignatius Donnelly, Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom, Wes Jackson, and Wendell Berry. It also contains an extensive bibliography.
This would make a great textbook in a course on American agrarianism, American cultural history, or even something on the Jefferson tradition in America. I hope to get my copy soon. When I do, you can expect another blog post–maybe even a series of posts on these writers.
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