History 248 Reading Guide

Rural Life in the Northeast, the South, and the Opening of the Midwest

  • Allan Kulikoff, “The Transition to Capitalism in Rural America,” William and Mary Quarterly 3d. Ser., 46 (1989), 120-144.  JSTOR
  • Susan Sessions Rugh, “Civilizing the Countryside:  Class, Gender, and Crime in Nineteenth-Century Rural Illinois,” Agricultural History 76.1 (2002), 58-81.  (e-reserve) 

Further reading: 

  • David Jaffee, “Peddlers of Progress and the Transformation of the Rural North, 1760-1860,” Journal of American History 78.2 (1991), 511-535.  JSTOR

Questions:

  • Kulikoff analyzes the debate between “market historians” and “social historians” over definitions of capitalism, characterizations of economic conflict, and interpretations of the nature of exchange relations.
  • How does he describe market participation and economic exchanges between rural households during the long era of economic transformation (beginning in the third quarter of the eighteenth century and continuing through the nineteenth century)?
  • In his discussion of exchange in local communities during the “transition to capitalism,” why does he emphasize the importance of examining rural households as both cooperative units and as units where economic matters—especially as those related to capitalist exchange—could lead to conflicts and tensions in gender relations?
  • What were the characteristics of “yeomen” and “yeoman society” in rural America that Kulikoff describes?  How might the goals of yeoman have shaped the decisions of some rural families to move west?
  • Questions for Rugh, "Civilizing the Countryside," forthcoming.


Questions for the further reading:

  • According to Jaffee, what role did peddlers play in the “transformation” of the northern rural economy?
  • What does Jaffee’s study reveal about the meaning of capitalism, commercialization, and the culture of consumption for rural families?