Sociology in Government

Olaf F. Larson is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Rural Sociology at Cornell University.Julie N. Zimmerman is Professor of Rural Sociology in the Department of Community and Leadership Development at the University of Kentucky, and the Historian for the Rural Sociological Society.

• ContentsForewordFelice J. Levine and James J. Zuiches; John E. Lee Jr. AcknowledgmentsList of Acronyms 1. Introduction 2. Establishing the Division: The Background 3. The Division as an Organization 4. Research Priorities and Programs: Continuities and Discontinuities 5. Farm and Rural Population 6. Levels and Standards of Living 7. The Social Organization of Rural Society: Locality and Other Groups 8. The Social Organization of Rural Life: Institutions and Services 9. Farm Labor 10. The Sociology of Agriculture 11. The Division and Black Populations Yvonne Oliver 12. The Practice of Sociology: I 13. The Practice of Sociology: II14. Some Other Areas of Research 15. The Division and the Social Science Research System 16. Retrospect and Reflections Epilogue Appendix: Persons on the Professional Staff of the Division of Farm Population and Rural Life, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1919–1953 References Index

“This detailed chronicle of the research conducted in the US Department of Agriculture’s Division of the Farm Population and Rural Life between 1919 and 1953 provides a useful overview of the range of research conducted or sponsored by the division and some of the political and institutional challenges to its program. Larson (emer., Cornell Univ.) and Zimmerman (Univ. of Kentucky) nicely illustrate that high-quality research was produced during the years that Charles Galpin and Carl Taylor headed the division. Readers are provided with in-depth descriptive accounts of their tenures.”—P. Kivisto Choice