Agrarianism is

social philosophy Social philosophy examines questions about the foundations of social institutions, social behavior, and interpretations of society in terms of ethical values rather than empirical relations. Social philosophers emphasize understanding the social ...

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

which values

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

society as superior to

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

society, the independent farmer as superior to the paid worker, and sees farming as a way of life that can shape the ideal social values. It stresses the superiority of a simpler rural life as opposed to the complexity of city life.

Classical era

Greece and Rome

In Greece,

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet ...

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

, and

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies o ...

promoted agrarian ideas. Even more influential were such Roman thinkers as Cato,

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

, Horace, and

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

. They all praised the virtues of a life devoted to the tilling of the soil.

China

Agriculturalism Agriculturalism, also known as the School of Agrarianism, the School of Agronomists, the School of Tillers, and in Chinese as the ''Nongjia'' (), was an early agrarian Chinese philosophy that advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitariani ...

(農家/农家; ''Nongjia'') was an early agrarian social and political philosophy in ancient China that advocated peasant utopian communalism and

egalitarianism Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hu ...

. The philosophy is founded on the notion that human society originates with the development of

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

, and societies are based upon "people's natural propensity to farm." The Agriculturalists believed that the ideal government, modeled after the semi-mythical governance of

Shennong Shennong (), variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Husbandman", born Jiang Shinian (), was a mythological Chinese ruler known as the first Yan Emperor who has become a deity in Chinese and Vietnamese folk religion. He is vene ...

, is led by a benevolent king, one who works alongside the people in tilling the fields. The Agriculturalist king is not paid by the government through its treasuries; his livelihood is derived from the profits he earns working in the fields, not his leadership. Unlike the Confucians, the Agriculturalists did not believe in the division of labour, arguing instead that the economic policies of a country need to be based upon an egalitarian

self sufficiency Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person or organization needs little or no help from, or interaction with, others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a self-s ...

. The Agriculturalists supported the fixing of prices, in which all similar goods, regardless of differences in quality and demand, are set at exactly the same, unchanging price. They encouraged farming and agriculture and taught farming and cultivation techniques, as they believed that agricultural development was the key to a stable and prosperous society. The philosopher Mencius once criticised its chief proponent Xu Xing (許行) for advocating that rulers should work in the fields with their subjects. One of Xu's students is quoted as having criticized the duke of

Teng Teng may refer to: *Teng (surname) (滕), a Chinese surname *Teng (state), an ancient Chinese state *Teng (mythology), a flying dragon in Chinese mythology *Teng County Teng County or Tengxian (; za, Dwngz Yen) is a county of eastern Guangxi, C ...

in a conversation with Mencius by saying: ‘A worthy ruler feeds himself by ploughing side by side with the people, and rules while cooking his own meals. Now Teng on the contrary possesses granaries and treasuries, so the ruler is supporting himself by oppressing the people’.

18th and 19th centuries

Physiocrats

Physiocracy was a French agrarian philosophy that originated in the 18th century. The movement was particularly dominated by François Quesnay (1694–1774) and

Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne ( ; ; 10 May 172718 March 1781), commonly known as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman. Originally considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered as an early advocate for economic lib ...

(1727–1781).Steiner (2003) p62 The Physiocrats were partially influenced by Chinese agrarianism; leading physiocrats like François Quesnay were avid Confucianists that advocated China's agrarian policies.

18th- and 19th-century Europeans and Americans

Borrowing from the French

Physiocrats Physiocracy (; from the Greek for "government of nature") is an economic theory developed by a group of 18th-century Age of Enlightenment French economists who believed that the wealth of nations derived solely from the value of "land agricultur ...

the idea that all wealth originates with the land, making farming the only truly productive enterprise, agrarianism claims that agriculture is the foundation of all other professions. Philosophically, European agrarianism reflects the ideas of John Locke, who declared in his ''Second Treatise of Civil Government'' (1690) that those who work the land are its rightful owners. His labor theory of value influenced the thinking of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

, who in turn shaped the way many 19th-century American homesteaders understood ownership of their farms. Jefferson wrote in 1785 in a letter to

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...

that The political philosopher James Harrington influenced the development of explicit agrarian designs for the colonies of Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

James Edward Oglethorpe James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British soldier, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist, as well as the founder of the colony of Georgia in what was then British America. As a social reformer, he hoped to re ...

, who founded Georgia in 1733, implemented a comprehensive physical, social, and economic development plan organised around the central concept of "agrarian equality." The

Oglethorpe Plan The Oglethorpe Plan is an urban planning idea that was most notably used in Savannah, Georgia, one of the Thirteen Colonies, in the 18th century. The plan uses a distinctive street network with repeating squares of residential blocks, commercial ...

allocated land in grants of equal size, prohibited acquisition of additional land through marriage or acquisition, and prohibited slavery for moral reasons as well as to prevent the formation of large plantations like those that existed in neighbouring South Carolina.

Richard Hofstadter Richard Hofstadter (August 6, 1916October 24, 1970) was an American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century. Hofstadter was the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. Rejecting his earlier historic ...

has traced the sentimental attachment to the rural way of life, which he describes as "a kind of homage that Americans have paid to the fancied innocence of their origins." Hofstadter notes that to call this a "myth" is not to imply that the idea is simply false. Rather the ''myth'' so effectively informs an agrarian ethos that it profoundly influences people's ways of perceiving values and hence their behaviour. He emphasises the importance of the agrarian myth in American politics and life even after industrialisation revolutionised the American economy and life. He stresses the significance of the writings of Jefferson and his followers in the South, such as

John Taylor of Caroline John Taylor (December 19, 1753August 21, 1824), usually called John Taylor of Caroline, was a politician and writer. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1779–81, 1783–85, 1796–1800) and in the United States Senate (1792–94, 1803 ...

in the development of agricultural fundamentalism. American politicians, for example, boasted of their agrarian or log-cabin origins, and praised the

republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...

of the

yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...

farmers. In the late 18th and early 19th century, agrarianism felt the influence of the European

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

movement. Romantics focused attention on the individual and described nature as a spiritual force. At a time when pristine wilderness was becoming scarce in many parts of Europe, what constitutes “nature” was confused with the last remnants of wilderness—cultivated fields, managed woodlands, and cultivated livestock and crops. As someone in constant contact with (this watered-down version of) “nature”, the farmer was positioned to experience moments that transcend the mundane material world. In doing so, these thinkers managed to redefine nature in the human image, accommodating

enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

with a new “domesticated” version of nature.

Ireland Agrarian Rebellions

In Ireland, many agrarian rebellions occurred during the 18th and the 19th century because of the discontented rural landless Catholics. The first outbreaks occurred in 1711 to 1713, when a group called the ‘Houghers’ slaughtered many sheep and cattle owned by landlords. This event became widespread and affected many other western counties in Ireland. However, the actions taken by the ‘Houghers’ didn't produce any successors and did not create a tradition for peasant revolt. It took almost 50 years to see another agrarian rebellion in Ireland. This time the Whiteboy movement led the outbreak between 1761 and 1765. This particular outbreak created a tradition of peasant protest throughout the provinces of Munster and Leinster. The first operations of the Whiteboys succeeded but did not have a long-lasting effect. The Whiteboys caused a second outbreak between 1769 and 1776. The outbreak started slowly but intensified quickly. At the same time, the Hearts of Steel and the Steelboys, who were also agrarian movements, led outbreaks in other parts of Ireland. The main goals of the Whiteboy movement were to short-circuit the judicial system, lower the price of the rents and the reduction of the tithe on potatoes and corn. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, the competition for potato land was extremely high in Ireland. This competition over land led to a lot of agrarian violence. In the 1820s, a new agrarian movement was created in Ireland called the Rockites. This newly formed movement was one of the most violent agrarian movements that Ireland has ever seen in its history. They would commit murder and use incendiary weapons in warfare. Most of their support came from the poor population. The actions taken by the Rockites led to the reinforcement of military presence in Ireland. Many observers believe that the creation of the Rockite movement occurred because of a single man called Alexander Hoskins. Alexander Hoskins owned over 34,000 acres of land around the small town of Newcastle West. People complained that he managed the land poorly and with irregularity. During 1821–22, Ireland went into an agricultural crisis, which led to an economic disaster that largely affected the rural population. However, the main reason why the Rockites took violent action in Ireland was to fight against those who owned economic survival. The competition for land at that time was very intense and the Rockites showed that the poor population would do anything to obtain some.

20th century

In the 1910s and 1920s, agrarianism garnered significant popular attention, but was eclipsed after 1945 as Agrarian movements were suppressed behind the Iron Curtain. It revived somewhat in conjunction with the

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...

, and has been drawing an increasing number of adherents.

Central and Eastern Europe

Eastern European theorists include Pyotr Stolypin (1862–1911) and

Alexander Chayanov Alexander V. Chayanov (russian: Александр Васильевич Чаянов; 17 January 1888 – 3 October 1937) was a Russian, then Soviet agrarian economist, scholar of rural sociology, and advocate of agrarianism and cooperatives. ...

(1888–1939) in Russia;

Adolph Wagner Adolph Wagner (25 March 1835 – 8 November 1917) was a German economist and politician, a leading ''Kathedersozialist'' (academic socialist) and public finance scholar and advocate of agrarianism. Wagner's law of increasing state activity is ...

(1835–1917), and Karl Oldenberg in Germany, and Bolesław Limanowski (1835–1935) in Poland. In Russia the intellectuals of the "Populists" (

Narodnaya Volya Narodnaya Volya ( rus, Наро́дная во́ля, p=nɐˈrodnəjə ˈvolʲə, t=People's Will) was a late 19th-century revolutionary political organization in the Russian Empire which conducted assassinations of government officials in an att ...

) and, later, the

Socialist-Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party, or the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries (the SRs, , or Esers, russian: эсеры, translit=esery, label=none; russian: Партия социалистов-революционеров, ), was a major politi ...

developed a theoretical basis for a peasant movement, building a rich, well-developed humanistic ideology which influenced eastern Europe, especially the Balkans. It never attained the international visibility among peasants that socialism did among the urban workers. In Poland Bolesław Limanowski thought deeply about Agrarianism and worked out an eclectic program that fit Polish conditions. His practical experience as a farm manager combined with socialist, "single-tax," and Slavic communal ideas shaped his world view. He proposed a form of agrarian socialism with large state farms to counteract the inefficiency of very small holdings. In independent Poland he advocated expropriation of gentry estates. His observation of peasant individualism convinced him that Poland should combine voluntary collectivism and individual possession of the leased land. His pragmatism left room even for private peasant ownership, despite his Marxism.

Canada

The most important Canadian theorist was an American immigrant, Henry Wise Wood, president of the

United Farmers of Alberta The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) is an association of Alberta farmers that has served different roles in its 100-year history – as a lobby group, a successful political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. As a political party, it forme ...

(UFA) during that movement's time as the governing party of the province (1921–1935). He, as did many Canadian farmers of the era, conceived of farmers as a distinct social class in the midst of a class struggle against capitalists who owned the Canada's banks,

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, and grain trading companies. His solution was a kind of

corporatism Corporatism is a collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, on the basis of their common interests. The ...

called "group government". In this scheme, people would be represented in government by a party or organization that defended the interests of their particular occupation or industry, not a particular ideology. On the basis of this philosophy the UFA, as the representative of the farmers as a class, ran candidates only in rural area and not in the cities. Instead they urged their urban sympathisers to vote for

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

candidates, as the representatives of the urban working class. This type of farmer-labour co-operation became common throughout

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

, leading to the creation of the short-lived Progressive Party of Canada in the 1920s, and the more durable Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Farmer-Labour-Socialist) in Calgary, Alberta, in 1935, precursor to Canada's modern-day social democratic party, the New Democratic Party. Demeritt (1995) argues that in British Columbia (and Canada generally), there were three overlapping agrarian viewpoints. Arcadianism was based on nostalgic memories of rural England, and led to the widespread creation of orchards and gardens. Agrarianism claimed agriculture was the source of all wealth and called for the wide distribution of land as the foundation of democracy and freedom. The Country Life Movement was a loose grouping of social reformers, church leaders, and urban progressives; they sought solutions for rural economic decline, social stagnation, and the depopulation of the countryside.

United States

In American history important spokesmen included

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

, Thomas Jefferson, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1735–1813), and

(1753–1824) in the early national period. The memory of George Washington was often upheld as an ideal agrarian. In the mid-19th century important leaders included

Transcendentalists Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...

such as

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

(1803–1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). After 1890 came philosopher

Josiah Royce Josiah Royce (; November 20, 1855 – September 14, 1916) was an American objective idealist philosopher and the founder of American idealism. His philosophical ideas included his version of personalism, defense of absolutism, idealism and his ...

(1855–1916), botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954), the

Southern Agrarians The Southern Agrarians were twelve American Southerners who wrote an agrarian literary manifesto in 1930. They and their essay collection, ''I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition'', contributed to the Southern Renaissance, t ...

of the 1920s and 1930s, novelist John Steinbeck (1902–1968), historian

A. Whitney Griswold Alfred Whitney Griswold (October 27, 1906 – April 19, 1963) was an American historian and educator. He served as 16th president of Yale University from 1951 to 1963, during which he built much of Yale's modern scientific research infrastructur ...

(1906–1963), environmentalist Aldo Leopold (1887–1948),

Ralph Borsodi Ralph Borsodi (December, 1888 – October 27, 1977) was an American agrarian theorist and practical experimenter interested in ways of living useful to the modern family desiring greater self-reliance (especially so during the Great Depression) ...

(1886–1977), and present-day authors

Wendell Berry Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ...

(b. 1934),

Gene Logsdon Gene Logsdon (November 5, 1931 – May 31, 2016) was an American man of letters, cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, b ...

(b. 1932), Paul Thompson, and

Allan C. Carlson Allan C. Carlson (born 1949 in Des Moines, Iowa) is a scholar and former professor of history at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. He is the President Emeritus of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, former director of the ...

(b. 1949). In 1930 in the U.S. the

wrote in the "Introduction: A Statement of Principles" to their book ''I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition'' that

Leading American Neo-Agrarian Theorists

Recent agrarian thinkers are sometimes referred to as neo-Agrarian and include the likes of

, Paul B. Thompson, and

. They are characterised by seeing the world through an agricultural lens. Although much of Inge's principles, above, still apply to the French Revolution, the affiliation with a particular religion and patriarchal tendency have subsided to some degree. Aldo Leopold Leopold was born in 1887 and educated at Yale University. He developed the field of game management and introduced an ecological ethic that replaced an earlier wilderness ethic where human dominance is stressed. In addition, he included the farm as a place of conservation and is considered an agrarian scholar. Leopold believed that harm was frequently done to natural systems out of a sense of ownership and this idea eclipsed community. 8He expanded the idea of community to include the environment and the farm. Leopold is the author of several essays and is perhaps best known for his book ''A Sand County Almanac'' (1953).

Wendell Berry is an author of several books, essays, and poems whose writing often illustrates his values which centre around sustainable agriculture, healthy rural communities, and a connection to place. He is a prominent defender of agrarian values and has an appreciation for traditional farming. Rod Dreher writes the following: “ erry'sunshakable devotion to the land, to localism, and to the dignity of traditional life makes him both a great American and, to the disgrace of our age, a prophet without honour in his native land." 9 J. Baird Callicott Callicott is, perhaps, best known for his research which explores an Aldo Leopold ethic as a response to global climate change. Callicott supports a holistic, non-anthropocentric environmental ethic which is in accordance with Leopold's view that "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise" 5He holds the view that an adequate environmental ethic—one that addresses actual environmental concerns—must be intrinsically holistic. Paul B. Thompson Paul Thompson is the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University. He has published extensively on the social and environmental significance of agriculture and a number of volumes and papers on the philosophical significance of farming, notably ''The Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental Ethics'' (1995) and ''The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism'' (2000). His most recent publication called ''The Agrarian Vision'' focuses on sustainability and what agrarian philosophy can offer when we conceptualise what sustainability actually means.Thompson, Paul. 2010. ''The Agrarian Vision.'' Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press.

References

External links

Writings of a Deliberate AgrarianThe New Agrarian
{{Simple living Agrarianism