University of Nebraska Press Tied to Their Country: The Farm Crisis, Agrarian Activism, and the Rise of Anti-Federalism

Historically, rural spaces in the United States have encompassed a wide array of political cultures and affiliations, but in the late twentieth century, rural America became a breeding ground for anti-government militancy. Disparate groups coalesced around an ideology grounded in virulent rural anti-federalism. Although farmers today are often beneficiaries of federal programs and payments, anti-federal sentiments run rampant across rural America. The reason, Rebecca Shimoni Stoil argues, lies in the collapse of rural society during the Farm Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. In Tied to Their Country, Shimoni Stoil examines the immediate and long-term political repercussions of the Farm Crisis. Beginning as an agricultural crisis, it quickly enveloped all of rural America as banks collapsed, Main Street storefronts closed, and small towns became ghost towns. Because the federal government failed to offer farmers viable solutions, previously disparate ideologies converged in this political vacuum to advocate for agrarian America amid growing distrust of federal institutions and intentions. Farmers found their best strategy was appealing to romantic ideas of American traditions, and social conservatives quickly reciprocated, turning farm country into the heartland of social conservatism. The perceived failure of the federal government's response to the Farm Crisis generated distrust, resentment, and a crisis of faith in government that resonates across rural spaces today.