For more in-depth information on Iowa’s agricultural history please consider the references below.
To find a copy of the book near you please click here
Anderson, J. L. Industrializing the Corn Belt: Agriculture, Technology, and Environment, 1945-
1972. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2008.
Anderson, J.L., ed., The Rural Midwest since World War II. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University
Press, 2014.
Barker Devine, Jenny. On Behalf of the Family Farm: Iowa Farm Women’s Activism since 1945.
Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2013.
Blanke, David. Sowing the American Dream: How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural
Midwest. Athens: Ohio University press, 2000.
Bogue, Allan G. From Prairie to Corn Belt: Farming on the Illinois and Iowa Prairies in the
Nineteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.
Childs, Marquis. The Farmer Lends a Hand: The Electric Power Revolution in Rural America.
New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1952.
Cogswell, Seddie. Tenure, Nativity and Age as Factors in Iowa Agriculture, 1850-1880. Ames:
Iowa State Univesity Press, 1975.
Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W. W. Norton
and Company, 1991.
Fink, Deborah. Open Country, Iowa: Rural Women, Tradition and Change. New York: State
University of New York, 1986.
Hamilton, Carl. In No Time at All. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1974.
Hurt, R. Douglas. American Agriculture: A Brief History. Ames: Iowa State University Press,
1994.
Hurt, R. Douglas. American Farm Tools from Hand Power to Steam Power. Manhattan (KS):
Sunflower University Press, 1982.
Hurt, R. Douglas. Agricultural Technology of the Twentieth Century. Manhattan (KS):
Sunflower University Press, 1991.
Jellison, Katherine. Entitled to Power: Farm Women and Technology, 1913-1963. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press: 1993.
Kline, Ronald. Consumers in the County: Technology and Social Change in Rural America.
Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2002.
Letterman, Edward J. Pioneer Farming in Iowa. Des Moines: Living History Farms, 1972.
McKinley, Marvin. Wheels of Farm Progress. St. Joseph (MI): American Society of Agricultural
Engineers, 1980.
Morain, Thomas. Century Farms of Iowa: The History of Farming in Iowa. Dallas: Taylor
Publishing Company, 1986.
Neth, Mary, Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community, and the Foundations of
Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1940. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press,
1998.
Oberly, James W. Sixty Million Acres: American Veterans and the Public Lands before the Civil
War. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1990.
Rikoon, J. Sanford. Threshing in the Midwest, 1820-1940: A Study of Traditional Culture and
Technological Change. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.
Ross, Earle D. Iowa Agriculture: An Historical Survey. Iowa City: State Historical Society of
Iowa, 1951.
Swierenga, Robert P. Acres for Cents: Delinquent Tax Auctions in Frontier Iowa.
Santa Barbara (CA): Preager, 1976.
Swierenga, Robert P. Pioneers and Profits: Land Speculation on the Iowa Frontier. Ames: Iowa
State University Press, 1968.
Swisher, Jacob A. Iowa: Land of Many Mills. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1940.
Whitaker, James W. Feedlot Empire: Beef Cattle Feeding in Illinois and Iowa, 1840-1900.
Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1975.
Williams, Robert C. Fordson, Farmall, and Poppin’ Johnny: A History of the Farm Tractor and
Its Impact on America. Champagne: University of Illinois Press, 1987.
Winters, Donald. Farmers Without Farms: Agricultural Tenancy in Nineteenth Century Iowa.
Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 1978
A huge thank you to Mike Vogt, curator at the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum for compiling this list.
