The Agrarian Seeds of Empire: The Political Economy of Agriculture in Us State Building

Description

The Agrarian Seeds of Empire outlines the influence of agrarian movements on the process of US institutional capacity building between 1840- 1980. Out of the mix of the developing new Nation and the expanding capitalist system emerged strong farmer s movements that produced state building processes central to American political development. It will show how the forces of state building and social movements converged to produce agro-industrialization. This agro-industrial developmental project was instrumental in both the development of the industrial food system and US Empire as the institutional capacities were later used to impose the same project outside of the US. These findings link together and augment existing approaches to capitalist development, International Relations, and theories of the state and the food system." The Agrarian Seeds of Empire: The Political Economy of Agriculture in US State Building Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements List of Figures and Tables Commonly Used Acronyms 1 Introduction The Agro-Industrial Complex Transcending State-Market Dichotomies Overview of the Chapters 2 The Agro-Industrial Roots of the us Capitalist Transition through State Capacity Building: 1830–1870 US Land Policy in the North Early Farmer Resistance to Market Expansion Land, Debt and Speculation Canal and Railroad Policy Early State Involvement in Agriculture Agro-Industrial Development Conclusion 3 The End of Slavery and Southern Agricultural Class Structure Slavery, the Civil War and the Transition The Civil War and State Institutional Expansion Postbellum Southern Agriculture Uneven Development across the South Tenancy and the Class Politics of Reconstruction Conclusion 4 Agrarian Populism: The Rise and Fall of Populism Farmers and Farming in the Late 19th Century USA Late 19th Century Agrarian Political Economy The Rise of Populism Populist Politics Populist Fractures The Decline of Populism The American Farm Bureau Federation Conclusion 5 State Institutional Capacity Building of the USDA-Research Complex Institutional Response to Agrarian Movements The Agro-Industrial Project in Research State Capacity Building in Trade and Banking Agro-Industrialization through Farmer Education State Responses to the Agricultural Crisis of the 1920s Conclusion 6 The New Deal and Agricultural State Institutional Capacity Building The Politics of the Agricultural Adjustment Act Southern Tenants and the AAA Theories of the New Deal Era State Class Influences on Institutional Development The Specific Case of California Agriculture The Consistency of Trade Promotion Agriculture, the New Deal, and World War II Conclusion 7 Sowing the Seeds of Globalization: Post-War Food Aid, Trade and the Agricultural Roots of US Hegemony Food Aid as Globalization’s Groundwork Food Aid as Agro-Industrial Development Project The Institutional Dimensions of Internationalization The Crisis of the 1970s Harvesting Free Trade The Food Regimes Approach Conclusion 8 Conclusion Appendix A Appendix B Bibliography Index