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November 2016 Vol. 54 No. 3

This is a new examination of the importance of farm and home bureaus, part of a national organization that assisted farmers and their wives through a variety of marketing and self-improvement efforts. Berlage (Texas State Univ.) positions the organization firmly in the Progressive Era as a volunteer association that supported scientific and reform efforts for the farm and home by working both with and outside of government channels. As universities provided new information about issues such as sanitation, fertilization, and child-rearing, the farm and home bureaus digested that information and disseminated it to members for their betterment. Less about the well-documented national political efforts of the organization, this examination uses sources from local chapters to position the association as a vital social and cultural aspect of rural life. For both the home and the farm, the group helped advance modern notions of science and technology. It was particularly effective in Ohio, Illinois, and New York. Land grant universities and libraries with agricultural interests will want this book in their collections.

--M. E. Birk, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.