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| From Agricultural History to Rural History： The Cultural Turn in the Study of Twentieth-Century American Agricultural History |
| Guo Huan |
| (School of History & Culture， Sichuan University， Chengdu 610065) |
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Abstract Prior to the 1970s， the study of agricultural history in the United States was predominantly influenced by economic and political histories， with agricultural production as its focus， resulting in significant advancements in agricultural economics， politics， and agroecology. Since the 1970s， influenced by the emergence of new social and cultural history approaches， American rural historians transcended the traditional research paradigm of the “rural areas as agriculture”， and explored a wide range of topics such as rural families， communities， churches， ethnicity， women， and rural modernization. Previously overlooked sources such as family account books， land and tax records， wills， church registration， and folk culture gained recognition for their historical significance. This marked the onset of a “cultural turn” in agricultural history， paving the way for the development of the framework of “New Rural History”. Since the late 20th century， rural history has continued to innovate on the basis of focusing on social and cultural studies， and begun to include certain transnational perspectives.
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Received: 24 January 2025
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2025, Vol. 64 
