Tracing the history of agricultural scientists in the United States from the colonial period to the present, Agricultural Scientists: A Cultural History explores the premise that culture has dictated and constrained how agricultural scientists approach their work through the centuries.
Beginning in the 1700s, Alan I Marcus examines the emergence of agricultural scientists in the United States and the effects of agricultural science on American society. Across nine chronological chapters, he explores agricultural scientists as a discrete group: their positions and responsibilities, identities and dreams, and the programs they introduced and furthered. He also considers the establishment and application of agricultural legislation, the creation of agricultural institutions, and the increasing centrality of agricultural scientists to farming and farm life, food and drug legislation, and the rise of consumerism and environmentalism.
Uniquely focused on agricultural scientists and the cultural contexts that have shaped the discipline and the evolution of American agriculture, this synthetic history will prove valuable not only to agricultural historians but also researchers interested in the creation and evolution of university agriculture departments, USDA-funded research centers, and the growing influence of private corporations on global agribusiness.