Book Description

With an expert blend of political, social, and economic history, Harvest of Dissent investigates the character of agrarian movements in nineteenth century New York to reexamine the nature of Northern farmers embrace of or resistance to the emergence of capitalist market agriculture. Taking the long view, Harvest of Dissent brings together the events of nearly a century of agrarian radicalism in central New York, giving Summerhill the ability to understand everything from the Anti-Rent movement to the Grange movement as part of a whole.Based on exceptionally thorough primary research, Summerhill convincingly demonstrates how protracted and contingent the process of drawing farmers into capitalist markets actually was, and the ways farmers selectively and creatively resisted it. Rather than characterizing farmer political insurgencies as episodic responses to discrete crises (as they are often portrayed), Harvest of Dissent argues that agrarianism played a constant role in the major political, economic, and social transformations that marked the emergence of modern America.Thomas Summerhill is an assistant professor of history at Michigan State University. He coedited Transatlantic Rebels: Agrarian Radicalism in Comparative Context.