Liberty Hyde Bailey, Agricultural Journalism, and the Making of the Moral Landscape

Abstract

Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954) was a prominent horticulturist, professor, rural reformer, and author. As an agricultural writer, who poured out his sentiments and his science in more than seventy books and countless articles for professional journals and consumer magazines, he championed the American farmer in the early twentieth century while many publications shifted their focus to suburban living and rural vacation homes for city dwellers. His hopes of fostering an autonomous, prosperous rural society would be frustrated by economic upheaval in the farm sector after 1920. But his writings, particularly about nature appreciation and amateur gardening, helped set the stage for the emergence of the U.S. environmental movement after World War II. Thus, as an editor of magazines and books—his relationship with the Macmillan Company alone spanned half a century—he was a major force in agricultural publishing and in the emergence of popular titles celebrating the allure of nature.