Volume V: The Rural Issue
In our fifth volume, we explore what rural character means to the residents of Southern Maryland, particularly St. Mary's County, in the face of a rapidly changing landscape. Despite its wide use, we found that 'rural character' often held very different meanings across our community. Though ultimately grounded in the physical landscape, rural character also includes economic and social relationships. Our land is not simply earth, it is the setting of the social and cultural practices that define us.
Introduction: The Rural Imagination
Beginning to Define Rural, by Julia A. King
PART I: IN THE BEGINNING
A Certaine Countrey Not Yet Cultivated and Planted
The Dutch Embassy to Maryland, 1659: Augustine Herrman's Journey through the Wilderness, by Anne Grulich
Possessing the Land: Becoming Rural in Colonial Maryland, by Martin E. Sullivan
Deep History: A Geological-Paleoenvironmental Analysis of the Sediments in St. John’s Pond, St. Mary’s City, by John C. Kraft and Grace S. Brush
PART II: RURAL ECONOMY AND CULTURE
After the Buyout: The Crops of 2005
A Farmer’s Story, told by James Walter Neal
I Had Enough of It, told by Philip Scriber
This is a Farming Community—You Only Carry Basics, told by John Thomas Cecil
The Impact of Rural Free Delivery, by Mary I. Lempert
Change Begins at Home: Rural Electrification and the Household Economy
Education in Rural Southern Maryland, told by Rev. James Caldwell and Elvare Gaskin
Meditations on ‘Rural’: The Art of Colby Caldwell, by Susan M. Glasser
PART III: THE RURAL FUTURE
Tobacco Barns: Bellwethers of Change, by Teresa Wilson
The Social Impact of Military Growth in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, 1940-1995, by Louis E. Hicks and Curt Raney
We’re Not from Here: Developing Community in the Culture of Naval Contractors, by Meghan F. Quinn
Going to Charge People to Walk through a Corn Field, told by Leonard T. (Tommy) Bowles, Jr
Preserving Rural Land and Other Forms of Open Space: Transferable Development Rights, by Holly Chase
Farming is a Business, told by James “Bubby” Norris
Preserving Rural Character: Benefits and Costs, by Joan Poor and Rina Brule
Winter Chatter, by Dana Christianson
A Community Store, told by Dan Raley
Coda: From Rural Production to Rural Consumption, by Julia A. King
