Solvable Problems: Science & Technology in Henry A. Wallace's Agricultural Reforms

1920年至1948年间，美国的农业研究和实践通过创造和使用新的科学技术革新而发生了革命性的变化。虽然一些历史学家研究了一些特殊的创新，但还没有人考虑到这种变化的本质，或者将其定位于州和联邦农业系统的农业科学精英。此外，没有人考虑到这样一种矛盾的情况，即这些普遍提高作物和牲畜产量的创新，是在商品生产过剩给农民造成严重经济危机的时候发展和推广的。在这个项目中，菲茨杰拉德博士通过考虑亨利·a·华莱士作为《华莱士农民》的编辑、先锋杂交公司总裁和农业部长所扮演的角色，来调查这些问题。华莱士可以说是这一时期最有影响力的农业领袖，他对科学技术有着进步主义的信仰，在试图解决科学丰富与农业平等的问题上，他是一个关键人物。菲茨杰拉德博士认为，华莱士重新定义了农场问题，用科学和技术专长使这些问题“可以解决”。尽管如此，农场问题仍然存在，这并不是华莱士的幼稚，而是当时的科学技术无法解决根本的社会和经济问题。为了开展这项研究项目，菲茨杰拉德博士将研究165卷华莱士通信的缩微胶卷，出版的初级和二级农业文献，包括农场论文，如华莱士的农民和草原农民，贸易出版物，以及美国农业部及其各局的政府文件和行政记录。

Between 1920 and 1948, American agricultural research and practice was revolutionized through the creation and use of new scientific and technological innovations. While some historians have studied particular innovations, no one has yet considered the nature of this change, or located it within the agricultural-scientific elite of the state and federal agricultural system. Further, no one has considered the paradoxical situation in which these innovations, which generally increased crop and livestock yields, were developed and promoted at a time when overproduction of commodities was generating a serious economic crisis for farmers. In this project, Dr. Fitzgerald is investigating these issues by considering the role of Henry A. Wallace in his capacities as editor of Wallaces' Farmer, president of Pioneer Hybrids, and Secretary of Agriculture. As arguably the most influential farm leader of this period, and one who held a progressivist faith in science and technology, Wallace was a pivotal figure in the attempted resolution of scientific abundance with farm parity. Dr. Fitzgerald argues that Wallace redefined farm problems in ways that rendered them "solvable" with scientific and technical expertise. That the farm problems remained nonetheless reflects not Wallace's naivete, but rather the inability of science and technology of the period to solve what were fundamentally social and economic ills. In order to carry out this research project, Dr. Fitzgerald will examine, among other things, the 165 microfilm reels of Wallace correspondence, published primary and secondary agricultural literature including farm papers such as Wallaces' Farmer and Prairie Farmers, trade publications, and government documents and administrative records of the USDA and its Bureaus.