Agricultural History Review, Volume 51 Part 2 (2003), p. 247

Sociological re-studies of rural communities are relatively rare in the United States. In this instance, a team approach was used to examine six localities initially researched in the 1940s. All were communities in which agriculture played key roles when originally explored; all save one had fewer than 2500 residents in the population centre when first examined. The six were thought to represent various types of rural places existing at that time.

The current set of researchers summarize the agricultural and social situations observed in the earlier studies, cite changes that occurred, and highlight socioeconomic factors at work in these areas in the 1990s. A chapter introduces the initial studies and describes the rationale 248 the agricultural for returning to them; this is followed by one that describes the theoretical framework that is employed by those conducting the follow-up studies. General sociological theories and concepts are set as the base for the six independent studies that follow, one for each of the study communities (Sublette, Kansas, by L. Bloomquist, D. Williams, and J. Bridger; Irwin, Iowa, by E. Hoiberg; Harmony, Georgia, by G. Green; Landaff, New Hampshire, by F. Schmidt, E. Skinner, L. Ploch and R. Krannich; El Cerrito, New Mexico, by R. Krannich and C. Eastman; and the Old Order Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, by A. Luloff, J. Bridger and L. Ploch). A chapter providing a comparative assessment of what occurred across the six communities concludes the book.

Photographs are used sparingly throughout to provide contrasts between circumstances in the 1940s and 1990s. The original reports also included photos and many others are available at the US National Archives and Records Administration from that work; professional photographers were assigned to explore the communities during the initial studies although evidently not as part of the more recent ones.

Selected originally to represent various points on a stability/instability continuum, dramatic changes occurred during the last half century in these places, with some reporting constant growth while others experienced population loss only to gain residents later, had relative stability in the number of residents, or noted general decline for decades. Some of the authors found it necessary to expand the geographic areas studied, because the original locality had changed so much that the sense of the original community no longer existed. New forms of community had emerged, however, thus giving rise to the conclusion that both change and persistence occurred in these rural places.

The considerable fieldwork conducted in these places generates historical and contemporary insights into change in US rural communities. The extent of the sense of community, both in social and economic terms, is explored. In some, little of the previous organizational structure exists, yet residents claim that community persists; in some others, new economic and social organizations have emerged to enhance local life. Each of the six chapters on the specific communities yields results of importance, from one in which increased divisions of labour in agriculture are evident to another in which divisions by race that were in place half a century ago persist today. Some of the communities continue only because of the ability to attract new residents, while others undergo increases that they don’t necessarily desire.

The independence of the authors of the re-studies is history review evident in this volume; although they shared a guiding theoretical framework grounded in the idea that community is based on social interaction that is relevant to the locality, the extent to which it was put to use varies greatly from one chapter to the next. That may have been necessary given the diversity of the sites revisited, but it makes it difficult to draw comparisons across the individual re-studies, which is evident in the brief concluding chapter. It is not as detailed a comparative assessment of persistence and change across these six places as could have been anticipated.

At least two of the localities changed so much that arguments about persistence are hindered. Rather, the former places basically ceased to exist; residents who arrived later differed greatly from the original inhabitants and developed new communities. These emerging localities, while located in more or less the same geographic space as the earlier ones, have little if any relation to the former communities or their inhabitants. Indeed, in one case, no one in the area recalled the name applied to the former place. Seasonal residents add vitality in some of the communities, while migrants with characteristics differing from those of long-term residents contribute to new issues in others.

This volume is an important addition to the sociological literature on rural communities. Few books attempt to provide comparative information on various sites across time. The results suggest that agriculture remains a key factor in some of the six communities, while in others its role has been greatly diminished. Reviewing the original reports of the studies from the 1940s and those reported in this volume for the 1990s reinforces the diversity that characterizes rural places in the United States in the past, across the decades, and at present, suggesting that both change and persistence are appropriate dimensions on which they can be compared.