Table of Contents Introduction: Change, continuity, and the transformations of rural life -- And the crooked shall be made straight: rural road reform and the politics of localism -- Teach no more his neighbor: localism and rural opposition to educational reform -- Bringing forth strife: the ironies of dairy organization in the New York milkshed -- To reap the whirlwind: the social and ideological bases of farmers' grain elevators -- With all the fragrant powders of the merchant: mail-order buying in the...