Book Review: Black Earth and Ivory Tower: New American Essays from Farm and Classroom

What does agriculture have to do with the humanities? The integration of these seemingly antithetical worlds is essential for these agriculture-rooted authors who articulate their connection to rural life and labor they have maintained despite performing academic work. While several of the authors present their childhood experiences, they avoid nostalgia by exploring the forces that have made them return to the farm in their lives and research. There is a valorization of agricultural values coupled with the paradoxical recognition that the life of labor-intensive family farms is waning, the very trend that propelled many of these writers into off-farm careers. While several essays wrestle with sustainable agriculture, others reluctantly speculate that no effort can stop the disappearance of the family farm and the Wal-Martification of agriculture