Previously unpublished, Land! unites John Crowe Ransom’s poetic sensibilities with his argument for an agrarian economy as an alternative to capitalism. In Land! , the accomplished poet and scholar John Crowe Ransom, leading member of the Southern Agrarian movement, examines economics at the height of the Great Depression. Long thought to have been burned by its author after he failed to find a publisher, Land! is politically charged with Ransom’s aesthetic beliefs about literature and his agrarian interpretation of economics. After the publication of the Southern Agrarian movement’s manifesto I’ll Take My Stand in 1930, Ransom, who provided the book’s Statement of Principles in addition to its lead essay, became convinced that the book had not adequately proposed an economic alternative to Northern industrialism, which had nearly obliterated the Southern way of life. Land! was Ransom’s attempt to fill this gap. In it he presents the weaknesses inherent in capitalism and argues convincingly that socialism is not only an inadequate alternative but inimical to American sensibilities. He proposes instead that agrarianism, which could flourish alongside capitalism, would relieve the problems of unemployment in America due to its wealth of land. This insightful, long-lost piece of American literature and history speaks to today’s socioeconomic times. “ Land!: The Case for an Agrarian Economy was written in the 1930s by the distinguished poet and critic John Crowe Ransom and only recently rediscovered and edited by Jason Peters for Notre Dame Press. In it Ransom joins Lauck in championing the values fostered by rural and small-town America. Is this just wishful thinking? Perhaps, and yet don’t we sometimes need to step back before we can leap forward?" ― The Washington Post “An extraordinary and long thought lost to history work of John Crowe Ransom’s Depression-era treatise, ‘Land!: The Case for an Agrarian Economy’ is a highly valued and unreservedly recommended addition to community and academic library Economic Studies collections and supplemental reading lists.” ―Michael J. Carson, Reviewer’s Bookwatch "The modern reader cannot help but be struck by the current timeliness of Ransom’s observations about rootless people condemned as cogs in an economic wheel, liable to be cast aside when they no longer serve the purpose of the moment. Meanwhile, the flight from the farm has continued unabated for nearly a century, while the inherent problems of industrial capitalism that Ransom observed remain." ― The Abbeville Review "In Land! , his classic statement of agrarian economic thought, John Crowe Ransom offered a trenchant critique of capitalism. Writing in the early 1930s, at the onset of the worst economic crisis in American history, Ransom proposed not only a return to the land but also a retreat from the market as the surest means of ending unemployment. . . . In questioning the progressive ideologies that still enthrall liberals and conservatives alike with visions of inexhaustible power and relentless growth, Ransom . . . affirmed the goodness of life without also disavowing its tragedy. [This] is a legacy not of alluring though unsustainable expansion and wealth but of humane limits and durable hope." ― The University Bookman "As reported in an excellent introductory essay by Jay Collier, Ransom undertook this project largely because he saw the 1929 crash as an opening in which the social philosophy articulated in I’ll Take My Stand could get a wider hearing. He intended to exploit this opportunity by framing agrarianism as a promising response to the obvious ills associated with severe economic downturn. . . . I commend the effort and I think that Land! deserves to be read as one additional thread in the larger fabric of agrarian thought. " ― Agriculture and Human Values "Now, Ransom’s 85-year-old cri de coeur has been found in the archives and released to the world by the University of Notre Dame Press and Front Porch Republic. Despite its age, you might say that Land! has gotten into print at just the right time. This three-generation-old work is exceedingly present tense. What Ransom articulates seems less a retreat to Eden than a critique of capitalism that would appeal to the inner anti-Davos protester in all of us: an indictment of a system that values accumulation, shareholder profit, and the pursuit of maximum gain over autonomy, self-sufficiency, and solidarity." ―Robert Neuwirth, author of Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy , in GrandHotelAbyss.com "John Crowe Ransom’s Land! , an idiosyncratic view of American economics in the early twentieth century, which has been intelligently edited by Jason Peters, adds a rich and considerable dimension to Agrarianism. Mr. Ransom’s highly original argument unfolds in beautifully written prose as he presents the various forms of modern economic practices ranging from capitalism in Britain and the