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From Farm to Market: The Political Economy of the Antebellum American West
- Date Issued:
- 2016
- Summary:
- This thesis examines the dynamic change the market revolution had on social and cultural institutions in the American West. Specifically, it investigates how market forces influenced rural life patterns for farmers, urban mercantile culture and regional commercial interests. Davenport, Iowa is the focus for the narrative’s hinge, as this midsized western marketplace represented a link between its farmers and the regional markets in Chicago. This project uses wheat and the prairie region in antebellum Iowa and Illinois as a case study and examines the cultural and social development of farmers and merchants in the marketplace. Following wheat from farm to market, both locally and regionally, helps to explain how Americans understood the commodity at each economic level. Time and place were central to the American West's economic, social, and cultural development and this thesis considers just a moment in its history. A intersect of rural, agricultural, technological, and environmental histories are at the project's core, but it also attempts to make sense of frontier capitalism and the ramifications it had on farming and the grain industry. The market revolution gradually influenced and shaped the nation’s agricultural economy and the people that preformed its labor and production.
Title: | From Farm to Market: The Political Economy of the Antebellum American West. |
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Name(s): |
Salcito, Matthew, author Engle, Stephen D., Thesis advisor Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters Department of History |
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Type of Resource: | text | |
Genre: | Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation | |
Date Created: | 2016 | |
Date Issued: | 2016 | |
Publisher: | Florida Atlantic University | |
Place of Publication: | Boca Raton, Fla. | |
Physical Form: | application/pdf | |
Extent: | 130 p. | |
Language(s): | English | |
Summary: | This thesis examines the dynamic change the market revolution had on social and cultural institutions in the American West. Specifically, it investigates how market forces influenced rural life patterns for farmers, urban mercantile culture and regional commercial interests. Davenport, Iowa is the focus for the narrative’s hinge, as this midsized western marketplace represented a link between its farmers and the regional markets in Chicago. This project uses wheat and the prairie region in antebellum Iowa and Illinois as a case study and examines the cultural and social development of farmers and merchants in the marketplace. Following wheat from farm to market, both locally and regionally, helps to explain how Americans understood the commodity at each economic level. Time and place were central to the American West's economic, social, and cultural development and this thesis considers just a moment in its history. A intersect of rural, agricultural, technological, and environmental histories are at the project's core, but it also attempts to make sense of frontier capitalism and the ramifications it had on farming and the grain industry. The market revolution gradually influenced and shaped the nation’s agricultural economy and the people that preformed its labor and production. | |
Identifier: | FA00004630 (IID) | |
Degree granted: | Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. | |
Collection: | FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection | |
Note(s): | Includes bibliography. | |
Subject(s): |
West (U.S.)--History. West (U.S.)--Historiography. West (U.S.)--Social conditions--19th century. United States--Economic conditions--To 1865. United States--Civilization--1783-1865. Capitalism--United States--Social aspects--History. |
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Held by: | Florida Atlantic University Libraries | |
Sublocation: | Digital Library | |
Links: | http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004630 | |
Persistent Link to This Record: | http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004630 | |
Use and Reproduction: | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder. | |
Use and Reproduction: | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ | |
Host Institution: | FAU | |
Is Part of Series: | Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections. |