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Feature articles in this issue:

• The Value of Rural America. by Thomas D. Rowley. The value that Americans place on rural places and rural people finds expression in a variety of ways art, literature, music, advertising, as well as public policy. The reasons vary, as do the manifestations. Some value rural areas for what they are, others for what rural areas are not, and still others for what they believe rural areas are or are not. Since values are at the heart of policymaking, it is important to understand how we value rural America.
• The Value of Rural Life in American Culture. by William Howarth. The image that people have had of rural areas is one largely fashioned by the residents of cities, who have seen the countryside as the often welcome antithesis of urban life. Rural life is no longer the predominant one in America, but its influence is still seen in city parks, suburban yards, and the recreational activities of urban people. Rural values provide stability against the rapid change of modern life.
• Corridors of Value: Rural Land in Rural Life. by Herbert Gottfried. People's intense experiences with the land have enhanced the cultural value of rural areas. Most rural landscapes are "constructed" that is, they show a many-layered history of human intervention. Cultural conservation holds an important place in rural policy because it reinforces the sensory experience of the rural landscape and strengthens landscape's role as a symbol of stability.
• Why Americans Value Rural Life. by David B. Danbom. Rural America has traditionally been valued in our society less because of what it is than because of what it is not. The Founders valued rurality because it set us apart from England, giving us a separate identity. By the mid-19th century we were valuing rural America because it was not urban America. In this century, celebrating rural America has served as a means of criticizing our urban industrial society and its values. We will probably always celebrate rural America, both because doing so allows us legitimately to criticize our society and because it provides a blank screen on which we can project our hopes and dreams.
• Rural America as a Symbol of American Values. by John R. Logan. American culture has long held an antiurban bias. To a great extent, what we value in rural settings is defined by what we suspect we have lost in the city. Some aspects of urban life are also appealing to us, and in some respects, they reflect the same values that we cherish in the countryside community, family, work. But rural America has a greater appeal precisely because we know it only at a distance. The meanings that we have constructed for urban and rural areas help to legitimate an antiurban bias in American public policy.

Contents and Editor's Notebook, 14 kb

The Value of Rural America, 18 kb

The Value of Rural Life in American Culture, 38 kb

Corridors of Value: Rural Land in Rural Life, 25 kb

Why Americans Value Rural Life, 24 kb

Rural America as a Symbol of American Values, 24 kb

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Updated: August 27, 1997