Rooted in Dust: Surviving Drought and Depression in Southwestern Kansas

Fontell Littrell\u27s grandmother was a devout Latter-Day Saint. But when Fontell\u27s father turned to bootlegging and poker to support an extended family of ten during the dirty thirties, her grandmother took it in stride. The Lord works in mysterious ways, his miracles to perform, she rationalized. The Litrells\u27 story and those of thousands of others who rode out the dust bowl in southwest Kansas are the focus of Pamela Riney-Kehrberg\u27s study of survival in a drought-ridden decade. Unlike other historians, who have dwelt on those who fled hardship, Riney-Kehrberg concentrates on the majority—three-quarters of the population—who endured. Examining the social impact of drought and depression, she illustrates how both farm and town families dealt with the deprivation by finding odd jobs, working in government programs, or depending on federal and private assistance. Years of tribulation, she shows, affected standards of living, family relationships, city and county finances, land ownership, farm prices and production, population shifts, and politics (traditionally staunchly Republican, southwest Kansas twice voted for Roosevelt). Looking also at the environmental impact, Riney-Kehrberg presents both the negative and positive sides of farming practices and governmental intervention. Most Kansans persevered for nearly ten years, Riney-Kehrberg emphasizes, and how they adapted indelibly altered their outlook and plans for the future More than fifty years later, the devastating dust storms continue to affect agricultural practices and policy and the population of southwest Kansas.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_books/1004/thumbnail.jp

Encyclopedia of Rural America: The Land and People

Review of: "Encyclopedia of Rural America: The Land and People," edited by Gary Goreham

Farm Youth and Progressive Agricultural Reform: Dexter D. Mayne and the Farm Boy Cavaliers of America

In the early years of the twentieth century, rural America faced a population crisis as young people increasingly left farms for cities. Progressive reformers responded to this crisis with various suggestions meant to more firmly attach youngsters to their rural roots. Among the many solutions advocated were rural youth organizations. The Farm Boy Cavaliers of America, which also enrolled girls, pursued a more innovative path than most, emphasizing not only entertainment and instruction, but also a high degree of economic education and independence for farm children. The program offered an alternative to the Boy Scouts, which Dexter D. Mayne, the organization\u27s founder, believed to be unsatisfactory and inappropriate for farm youth. Ultimately, the organization may have promoted too much freedom for the rural youth, advocating behavior that parents could not approve of or afford in the cash-strapped early days of the century

“I’LL FLY AWAY”: THE MUSIC AND CAREER OF ALBERT E. BRUMLEY

Albert E. Brumley (1905-1977) was the most influential American gospel song composer of the twentieth century, penning such “classics” within the genre as “Jesus, Hold My Hand,” “I’ll Meet You in the Morning,” “If We Never Meet Again,” “Turn Your Radio On,” and “Rank Strangers to Me.” His “I’ll Fly Away” has become the most recorded gospel song in American history with over one thousand recordings to date, and several of his works transcend cultural boundaries of style, genre, race, denomination, and doctrine. However, the racialized historiography of American gospel music has left Brumley—from America’s lesser-known white gospel traditions of convention singing and southern gospel music—largely untouched by scholarly scrutiny. Comprising nearly four hundred works, most of which appeared in annual shapenote gospel songbooks published during the 1930s and 1940s, Brumley’s music is central to many Americans’ religious identity. This thesis represents the first thorough, academic assessment of his music, career, and his work’s cultural impact. Deeper examinations of the composer’s personal life and his work as a songwriter, as well as a fresh look at his publishing business’s growth and development, contribute a more complete biography. A broad analysis of his output—including a complete thematic catalogue of his published works—provides a framework for interpreting Brumley’s general compositional style and offers a context for understanding his music’s enduring legacy within popular music history, especially southern gospel, black gospel, and country music. Research into the cultural history of one particular Brumley work—“I’ll Fly Away”—and its various incarnations in music, television, film, and other outlets acts as a lens through which to view his impact on American music and society. This thesis ultimately argues that Brumley’s compositions have influenced the development of religious and popular music in America much more significantly than indicated by current scholarship, and that his music has become an important medium for American cultural expression that stretches well beyond the confines of the convention-singing and southern gospel traditions. As a result, it recognizes him as an emblematic figure of American music deserving inclusion within the ranks of its greatest contributors

Book Review: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

Egan\u27s The Worst Hard Time is a literary and journalistic treatment of the Dust Bowl\u27s impact on the southern Great Plains. He follows the history of the region from the agricultural development of the early twentieth century through the events of the 1930s, focusing on the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas

The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories from the Farm of My Youth

Review of: The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories from the Farm of My Youth, by Alan Guebert with Mary Grace Foxwel

Wisconsin Agriculture: A History

Review of: Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, by Jerry Apps