Technology and Change in Rural America
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this history course on how rural production shifted from subsistence farming to industrialized agriculture, in the United States and abroad. Lectures and readings trace changing ideas of progress, the rise of genetics and its use in food production, the mechanization of farms and food processing, and the growing role of migrant labor. The syllabus also covers management theory applied to agriculture, federal and NGO involvement in production systems, the position of women in food production, and the global spread of the Green Revolution. Materials include the course syllabus, reading lists, and assignments as posted by MIT, with no fee to access the content. The course sits at the intersection of history, technology, and policy, asking how scientific and organizational change reshaped rural life over the twentieth century.