Nothing but the Dirt

Stories from an American Farm Town

Kate Benz (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

256 Seiten

2022
University Press of Kansas (Verlag)
978-0-7006-3345-6 (ISBN)

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Through charming, first-person accounts, Nothing but the Dirt: Stories from an American Farm Town tells the whole story of life in Courtland, Kansas (population 285), a town whose economy depends almost entirely on agriculture, bucking the ‘Rural America is dying’ narrative that so often proliferates headlines about small-town USA.

In this work of creative nonfiction, author Kate Benz provides an intimate look at the present-day residents of Courtland, Kansas (population 285), a town whose economy depends almost entirely on agriculture.Through charming, first-person accounts, Nothing but the Dirt: Stories from an American Farm Town tells the whole story of life in Courtland, bucking the “Rural America is dying” narrative that so often proliferates national headlines about small-town USA.

Throughout the book, Benz paints a picture of community that is unwilling to give up on each other. Macro-level issues such as rising tariffs, operation costs versus sinking commodity prices, and infusions of federal farm subsidies affect the locals’ daily livelihood, but it’s their love of their community that continues their collective efforts to keep Main Street open for business and Courtland on the map.

These are the stories from one corner of rural America, told through the people who live there: the fourth-generation farmers, the young professionals, the transplants, the small business owners (many of whom are women)—a community that is nuclear, blended, straight, gay, red, blue, religious, and anything but. Young people who grew up in Courtland are moving back to raise their kids there, but instead of farming, they are opening breweries, boutiques, marketing agencies, or hair salons. They love rural life but want a new way to define it.

Courtland is a community that is unwaveringly determined to keep their corner of rural America not only alive but thriving, refusing to let challenges define or deter them. Instead, they continuously find creative ways to overcome, adapt, improve, and move forward.

Kate Benz is a freelance writer in South Dakota.

PrefacePreface

Acknowledgments
Early Fall
The Coffee
The Morning Coffee: Friday
The Farmers: Steve Brown
The Pastor
The New Business: Soul Sister Ceramics
The Farmers: Hootie Rayburn
The Farmer’s Wife
The Young Couple
The Lunch Spot
The Mayor
The Newspaper
The Liar's Bench
The Gas Station
The Lutherans
Spring
The Good-bye
The Morning Coffee: Friday
The Farmers: Kenny Joerg
The Ladies
The Entrepreneur
The Day Care
The Ranchero
The Date Night
The Body
The Transplant
The Morning Coffee: Saturday
The Average Sunday
The Morning Coffee: Monday
The Memories
The Morning Coffee: Wednesday
Summer
The Morning Coffee: Wednesday
The Lambs
The Bank
The City Council Meeting
The Morning Coffee: Thursday
The Ditch Rider
The Family Business: C&W
Late Fall
The Morning Coffee: Thursday
The Broker
The Morning Coffee: Friday
The Veterinarian
The Morning Coffee: Saturday
The Harvest
The Family Business: Tebow Plumbing Co.
The Women: Peggy Nelson
The Nurse
The Homeopathic
The Morning Coffee: Monday
The Drive Home
Epilogue

Erscheinungsdatum	16.07.2022
Verlagsort	Kansas
Sprache	englisch
Maße	151 x 226 mm
Gewicht	363 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Empirische Sozialforschung
ISBN-10	0-7006-3345-6 / 0700633456
ISBN-13	978-0-7006-3345-6 / 9780700633456
Zustand	Neuware