ACES 179
History of Ag in IL Since 1860

Credit:  3 hours.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for a
Hist&Philosoph Perspect, and US Minority Culture(s) course.

An introduction to the history of agriculture in the rural Midwest with an emphasis on Illinois based on an analysis of the attitudes of indigenous peoples, immigrants, farmers and agribusiness interests toward land, labor, crop selection and production, and technology. The course compares the regional characteristics of the rural Midwest to other U.S. regions, and explores factors that created the American "breadbasket," a region recognized for the commodities, equipment and ideas that it exports to the world.