Book hall from #AHA2025! Erik Baker Paul Renfro Josh Nygren

Excited for these readings in my 20th-c Rural America grad course! Tough to cut from my list so many great books by friends and colleagues. But I’m pleased with this selection from Lori frederick, Greta de Jong, Erik Loomis, Bartow Elmore, & others from @AgHistorySoc & beyond.

Denmark, Wisconsin — 61 years ago today Steve Siudzinski used 17,000 quarts of milk to produce the world’s largest block of cheese. It weighed 34,591 lbs (17.4 tons). The cheese was eaten in 1965 at the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association at Eau Claire.

And those Eau Claire toilets never flushed properly again

New from me: How MAHA Poisons the Food Movement – Mother Jones motherjones.com/food/2025/01/r…

You heard it here first, folks

I had a great time chatting with @CamdenBurd about THE STATE OF CONSERVATION. Check out the link below to hear about bulldozers, kudzu, and thieving grandpas! UNC Press

This is such a good conversation about rural America and federal policy, framed around a really cool interpretation, the conservation-industrial complex. @CamdenBurd and Josh Nygren really nailed it. Worth a listen, and then another.

Check out the most recent episode of Heartland History. @CamdenBurd has a great conversation with Josh Nygren about his recent book The State of Conservation: Rural America and the Conservation-Industrial Complex since 1920 on.soundcloud.com/2i6VNbzbxzA7Wx…