American Rural Communities

This book is dedicated to the people of rural America whose struggle to make community meaningful provides important lessons. It includes the contributors' prescription for the 1990s that calls for a renewal of action, development, and leadership on the part of local citizens and civic leaders.

A. E. Lulloff is Associate Professor of Rural Sociology in the Department of Leisure Management and Tourism in the School of Health Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Louis E. Swanson is Associate Professor of Sociology in the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky. At the time of publication he was a Visiting Fellow with the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy at Resources for the Future.

Foreword -- Introduction -- Small Town Demographics: Current Patterns of Community Change -- Rethinking Assumptions About Farm and Community1 -- Timber-Dependent Communities1 -- Rapid Growth Effects on Rural Community Relations -- The Character and Prospects of Rural Community Health and Medical Care -- Education and Community -- Religion and Community -- Crime and Community -- Community Development -- Community Leadership -- Leadership and Implementation in Rural Economic Development1 -- Community and Social Change: How Do Small Communities Act? -- Barriers and Opportunities for Community Development: A Summary