Agricultural History Association, President, 1993-94
American Historical Association
American Studies Association
Oral History Association
Selected Publications
Toxic Drift: Pesticides and Health in the South, 1945-1970. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, forthcoming, 2005.
This book analyzes the impact of snythetic chemicals (pesticides) on human health and on birds, fish, wildlife, and domestic animals. This book was the basis of the 2004 Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures at Louisiana State University.
Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
This is an overview of the U.S. South that focuses on missed opportunities to reform rural life and face the problem of racism. It also discusses rock 'n' roll music and stock car racing. It won the Elliott Rudwick Prize from the Organization of American Historians.
"Rhythm of the Land,"Agricultural History 68 (Fall 1994), pp. 1–22.
Using interviews and archival sources, this essay examines the rural South's impact on the origins of rock 'n' roll music. It was the presidential address for the Agricultural History Society, 1994.
"The Legal Basis of Agrarian Capitalism: The South since 1933," in Melvyn Stokes and Rick Halpern, eds. Race and Class in the American South since 1890 (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1994), pp. 79–102.
Based on legal and archival sources, this lecture analyzed the importance of federal programs in reshaping rural life and perpetuating racism in commodity programs. This essay was the Commonwealth Fund Lecture for 1992, University College London.
Breaking the Land: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures since 1880. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.
Focusing on three commodities, the book traces the impact of government programs and mechanization in transforming rural life over a century. The book won the Charles S. Sydnor Prize from the Southern Historical Association and the Herbert Feis Award from the American Historical Association.
