R. Douglas Hurt

Ray Douglas Hurt
Born (1946-07-11) July 11, 1946
OccupationsAgricultural historian, academic and author
AwardsTheodore Saloutos Award, Agricultural History Society, and the Missouri History Book Award, State Historical Society of Missouri, for Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie
Gladys L. Baker Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Agricultural History, Agricultural History Society
Academic background
Education
Academic work
DisciplineHistorian
Sub-discipline
Institutions

Ray Douglas Hurt is an American agricultural historian, academic, and author. He is a professor of history emeritus at Purdue University, where he headed the department of history 2003–2018.

Hurt is known for his research on the Great Plains, the American Civil War, Native Americans, technology, and the American South, West, and Midwest, as well as the Green Revolution. His work places the economic and political aspects of agricultural history in environmental and social context. His books include Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie (1992), American Agriculture: A Brief History (1994, revised 2002), The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830 (1996), The Great Plains during World War II (2008), The Big Empty: The Great Plains in the Twentieth Century (2011), Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South (2015), The Green Revolution: Science, Politics, and Unintended Consequences (2020), Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815–1900 (2023), The Country People: An Agricultural History of the American Revolution (2026), and Famine in World History (2027).

Hurt was president of the Agricultural History Society 2000–2001. He has also served as the editor of the Missouri Historical Review, Ohio History, Agricultural History, and The Henry A. Wallace Series on Agricultural History and Rural Life. He has received two lifetime achievement awards for professional history, the 2016 Gladys L. Baker Award of the Agricultural History Society and the 2022 Frederick Jackson Turner Award of the Midwestern Historical Association.

Early life and education

Hurt was born July 11, 1946.[1] He studied at Fort Hays State University and received his bachelor's degree and master's degree in 1969 and 1971, respectively.[2][3] He then earned his doctoral degree from Kansas State University in 1975.[4] He was a Smithsonian Institution postdoctoral fellow in the History of Science and Technology 1976–1977.[2]

Career

Following his postdoctoral fellowship, Hurt held the position of a visiting assistant professor at Texas Tech University 1977–1978.[2] He then held concurrent appointments as a curator of agricultural history at the Ohio Historical Society (1978–1986) and as an adjunct associate professor of history at the Ohio State University (1981–1986).[2] From 1986 until 1989, he was the associate director of the State Historical Society of Missouri and adjunct professor of history at the University of Missouri - Columbia. He then joined Iowa State University as an associate professor in 1989 and was promoted to professor in 1992.[2] At Iowa State, he was director of the graduate program in agricultural history and rural studies.[4] In 2003, Hurt left Iowa State University to become a professor and head of the department of history at Purdue University.[4] He remained head of the department until 2018, and he retired emeritus.[5]

Hurt has served as a president of the Agricultural History Society (2000–2001).[6] He has also served on award committees for Agricultural History, Ohio Valley History and the Indiana Historical Society, and he has served as the editor of the Missouri Historical Review, Agricultural History (1995–2003),[6][7] Ohio History (2005–2009),[2] and The Henry A. Wallace Series on Agricultural History and Rural Life.[8]

In 2010, Hurt became a Fellow in the Agricultural History Society.[9] In 2016, Hurt was awarded the Gladys L. Baker Award for lifetime achievement from the Agricultural History Society.[10] In 2022, he was selected to receive the Frederick Jackson Turner lifetime achievement award of the Midwestern Historical Association (MHA).[11] He won the MHA's 2024 Jon Gjerde prize for the best book on the history of the Midwest in the past year, for his Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815–1900 (2023);[12][13] he is also the namesake of the MHA's R. Douglas Hurt Research Award, which he endowed to support archival research in Midwestern history.[14]

Research

Hurt's research is focused on the Great Plains, American Civil War, Native Americans, technology, and the American South, West, and Midwest, along with the Green Revolution.[15] He has worked on placing the economic and political aspects of agricultural history in an environmental and social context. He also published a paper on the various possibilities and pitfalls regarding museum studies for historians.[16]

Agricultural history of America

Hurt's work on the agricultural and rural history of America resulted in a book titled American Agriculture: A Brief History,[17] which focused on the major economic, technological and scientific developments regarding American agriculture from the colonial period. Hurt also has analyzed various contributions and studies conducted on American agricultural history[18] and reviewed the discipline of American agricultural history in scholarly publications.[19]

Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie

In 1992, Hurt published Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie, for which he received the 1992 Theodore Saloutos Award of the Agricultural History Society[10] and the 1993 Missouri History Book Award of the State Historical Society of Missouri.[20] The book was reviewed as "a welcome addition to the literature". According to D. Clayton Brown, "students of agricultural history and antebellum history should know this book".[21]

This book has been reviewed as "a solidly researched, informed account that fills a vacant niche in the historical literature".[22] In a review, David E. Schob stated that the book "may well be the best volume published in agricultural history in 1992".[23]

The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830

Hurt published his book The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720–1830 in 1996. The book gathered numerous reviews including a review by E. J. Fabyan that stated that "finally, after nearly twenty-five years, a high quality general history of the frontier period of the state of Ohio is now available". The book is "a dynamic account of the Ohio frontier that should delight both trans-Appalachian frontier scholars and interested amateurs".[24] In another review, the book was stated as "extremely readable and exciting treatments of the region during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries". Kay J. Carr noted that "readers who are looking for such a straightforward, no-nonsense approach will appreciate his [Hurt's] clarity."[25]

The Great Plains during World War II

Hurt's book The Great Plains during World War II received the Kansas City Star Noteworthy Book Award and the Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2008. The book is reviewed as "a thorough analysis of the period from the war's beginning to its conclusion". According to Greg Hall, "his best chapters are those that distinguish the Great Plains experience from that of the rest of the country".[26] Michael W. Schuyler wrote that "This is an outstanding book that will be of interest not only to professional historians but also to general readers with an interest in the history and development of the Great Plains" and that "This is history at its best—both scholarly and fascinating reading—and is indispensable for our understanding of the Great Plains experience during the Second World War".[27] Multiple reviewers noted it as a complement to Gerald D. Nash's World War II and the West (1990) about the Rocky Mountains and West Coast.[26][28][29]

Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South

In 2015, Hurt published Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South. According to David K. Thomson, Hurt's "focus on an environmental history of the war with a decided fusion with the history of capitalism" sets apart his work from other authors.[30] Louis Ferleger described the book as "Hurt's brilliant analysis" in which he "meticulously examines the pattern of southern agriculture and its impact on southern society".[31]

Hurt's book is also reviewed as "a well-reasoned narrative" and "the first comprehensive study of Confederate agriculture in fifty years",[32] along with "an impressive, and at times dizzying, assessment of all things Confederate agriculture". In a review, Michael Todd Landis stated that "Agriculture and the Confederacy is truly a comprehensive book, and Hurt should be applauded for both the depth of his research and his easy narrative style".[33]

Bibliography

Selected books

  • The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History (1981) ISBN 0-88229-541-1[34][35][36]
  • Indian Agriculture in America: Prehistory to the Present (1988) ISBN 978-0-7006-0802-7
  • Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie (1992) ISBN 978-0-8262-0854-5[10][20][21][22][23]
  • The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720–1830 (1996) ISBN 978-0-253-33210-3[24][25]
  • Nathan Boone and the American Frontier (1998) ISBN 978-0-8262-1159-0
  • The Indian Frontier, 1763–1846 (2002) ISBN 978-0-8263-1965-4
  • American Agriculture: A Brief History, rev. ed. (2002) ISBN 1-55753-281-8
  • The Great Plains during World War II (2008) ISBN 978-0-8032-2409-4[26][27][28][29]
  • The Big Empty: The Great Plains in the Twentieth Century (2011) ISBN 978-0-8165-2970-4[37]
  • Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South (Civil War America) (2015) ISBN 978-1-4696-2000-8[30][31][32][33]
  • Food and Agriculture during the Civil War (2016) ISBN 978-1-4408-0326-0
  • Documents of the Dust Bowl: Eyewitness to History (2019) ISBN 978-1-4408-5497-2
  • The Green Revolution in the Global South: Science, Politics, and Unintended Consequences (NEXUS) (2020) ISBN 978-0-8173-2051-5[38][39][40]
  • Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815–1900 (2023) ISBN 978-1-4962-3349-3[12][41][42][43]

The Country People: An Agricultural History of the American Revolution (2026) ISBN 9780820377209 Famine in World History (2027) ISBN 978-1-032-98105-5

Selected articles

  • Hurt, R. D. (2004). "Reflections on American Agricultural History." Agricultural History Review, 1–19.
  • Hurt, R. D. (2004). "The Agricultural and Rural History of Kansas: Review Essay." Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains, 27, 194–217.
  • Hurt, R. D. (2008). "Agricultural Politics in the Twentieth-Century West," in The Political Culture of the New West, 51–73.
  • Hurt, R. D. (2013). "The Agricultural Power of the Midwest during the Civil War," in Union Heartland: The Midwestern Home Front during the Civil War, 68–96.
  • Hurt, R. D. (2016). "Teaching Agricultural History at Land-Grant Universities," in Service as Mandate: How American Land-Grant Universities Shaped the Modern World, 1920–2015, 314–30.
  • Hurt, R. D. (2025). "Midwestern Farming Past and Present," in Between Loving and Leaving: Essays on the New Midwestern History, 21–32.

References

  1. ↑ "Hurt, R. Douglas". Library of Congress. August 5, 2025. Retrieved June 16, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Vita: R. Douglas Hurt" (PDF). Auburn University College of Liberal Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 20, 2025. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
  3. ↑ "R. Douglas Hurt '69, '71, 2020 FHSU Alumni Achievement Award Recipient". Youtube. FHSU Alumni Office. October 9, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "R. Douglas Hurt". Purdue University College of Liberal Arts. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  5. ↑ "R. Douglas Hurt". University of Georgia Press. Retrieved July 5, 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Officers of the Agricultural History Society, 1919 – Present" (PDF). Agricultural History Society. Retrieved July 6, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Idiosyncratic Reflections on Ninety Years of Agricultural History, Written in Celebration of the Agricultural History Society's One-Hundredth-Year Anniversary" (PDF).
  8. ↑ "Series: The Henry A. Wallace Series on Agricultural History and Rural Studies".
  9. ↑ "Fellows of the Society". Agricultural History Society. Retrieved August 16, 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 "Awards of the Agricultural History Society, 1953-present" (PDF). Agricultural History Society. Retrieved July 6, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Frederick Jackson Turner Award". Midwestern History Association. Retrieved July 5, 2026.
  12. 1 2 "Jon Gjerde Prize". Midwestern History Association. Retrieved July 5, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815–1900". University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved July 5, 2026.
  14. ↑ "R. Douglas Hurt Research Award". Midwestern Historical Association. Retrieved July 5, 2026.
  15. ↑ Hurt, R Douglas (2003). "Norman Borlaug: Geneticist of the Green Revolution". Iowa Heritage Illustrated. 84 (2): 78–84. doi:10.17077/1088-5943.1558.
  16. ↑ Hurt, R. Douglas (1985). "Museum Studies for Historians: Pitfalls and Possibilities". Curator: The Museum Journal. 28 (3): 203–209. doi:10.1111/j.2151-6952.1985.tb01542.x.
  17. ↑ Douglas Hurt, R. (1994). American Agriculture: A Brief History. Iowa State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8138-2376-8.
  18. ↑ Hurt, R. Douglas (1997). "American Agricultural and Rural History". American Studies International. 35 (1): 50–71. JSTOR 41279451.
  19. ↑ Hurt, R. Douglas (2004). "Reflections on American Agricultural History". The Agricultural History Review. 52 (1): 1–19. JSTOR 40275901.
  20. 1 2 "Missouri History Book Award". State Historical Society of Missouri. Retrieved July 6, 2026.
  21. 1 2 D. Clayton Brown (Winter 1993–1994). "Reviewed Work: Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie by R. Douglas Hart". The Mississippi Quarterly. 47 (1): 174–176. JSTOR 26475944.
  22. 1 2 Donald L. Winters (December 1993). "Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie by R. Douglas Hurt". Journal of American History. 80 (3): 1090–1091. doi:10.2307/2080477. JSTOR 2080477.
  23. 1 2 Schob, David E (1993). "Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie". The Annals of Iowa. 52 (3): 325–326. doi:10.17077/0003-4827.9745.
  24. 1 2 Fabyan, E. J. (1997). "The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720–1830". History: Reviews of New Books. 25 (3): 114. doi:10.1080/03612759.1997.9952792.
  25. 1 2 Carr, Kay J. (1998). "The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830/Frontier Indiana". The Annals of Iowa. 57 (1): 72–74. doi:10.17077/0003-4827.10131.
  26. 1 2 3 Hall, Greg (Fall 2009). "Review of The Great Plains during World War II By R. Douglas Hurt". Great Plains Quarterly. 29 (4): 329–330.
  27. 1 2 Schuyler, Michael W. (Winter 2009). "Reviewed Work: The Great Plains during World War II". The Annals of Iowa. 68 (1): 80–82. doi:10.17077/0003-4827.1305.
  28. 1 2 Lowitt, Richard (Spring 2010). "Reviewed Work: The Great Plains during World War II by R. Douglas Hurt". Agricultural History. 84 (2): 250–251. JSTOR 40607705.
  29. 1 2 Dean, Virgil W. (March 2009). "Reviewed Work: The Great Plains during World War II by R. Douglas Hurt". The Journal of American History. 95 (4): 1217–1218. doi:10.2307/27694677. JSTOR 27694677.
  30. 1 2 Thomson, David (March 2017). "Review of "Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South" by R. Douglas Hurt". History Faculty Publications. doi:10.1017/eso.2016.49. S2CID 159380848.
  31. 1 2 Ferleger, Louis (2016). "Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South by R. Douglas Hurt (review)". Journal of Southern History. 82 (3): 681–682. doi:10.1353/soh.2016.0238. S2CID 261871914.
  32. 1 2 Curtis, Anthony P. (Spring 2016). "Reviewed Work: Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South by Hurt, R. Douglas". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 75 (1): 89–91. JSTOR 26540217.
  33. 1 2 Landis, Michael Todd (2017). "Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South". American Nineteenth Century History. 18 (2): 191–193. doi:10.1080/14664658.2017.1340409. S2CID 149086130.
  34. ↑ Green, Donald E. (1983). "Review: The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History, by R. Douglas Hurt". Pacific Historical Review. 52 (3): 329–330. doi:10.2307/3639020. JSTOR 3639020.
  35. ↑ Fite, Gilbert C. (Fall 1983). "Review of The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History By R. Douglas Hurt". Great Plains Quarterly. 3 (4): 243–244.
  36. ↑ McDean, Harry C. (Spring 1986). "Dust Bowl Historiography". Great Plains Quarterly. 6 (2): 117–126. JSTOR 23530543.
  37. ↑ Mallea, Amahia (2013). "The Big Empty: The Great Plains in the Twentieth Century". The Annals of Iowa. 72 (3): 304–306. doi:10.17077/0003-4827.1730.
  38. ↑ Harwood, Jonathan (2020). "Reviewed Work: The Green Revolution in the Global South: Science, politics, and unintended consequences by R. Douglas Hurt". The Agricultural History Review. 68 (2): 322–323. JSTOR 48634329.
  39. ↑ Robins, Jonathan E. (December 2021). "Reviewed Work: The Green Revolution in the Global South: Science, Politics, and Unintended Consequences by R. Douglas Hurt". Journal of World History. 32 (4): 725–727. JSTOR 27106261.
  40. ↑ de Majo, Claudio (2022). "Reviewed Work: The Green Revolution in the Global South: Science, Politics and Unintended Consequences by R. Douglas Hurt". Global Environment. 15 (3): 602–608. JSTOR 27344581.
  41. ↑ Riney-Kehrberg, Pamela (2023). "R. Douglas Hurt, Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900". The Annals of Iowa. 82 (4): 359–361. doi:10.17077/0003-4827.34651.
  42. ↑ Jellison, Katherine (May 2025). "Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815–1900. By R. Douglas Hurt". Agricultural History. 99 (2): 277–279. doi:10.1215/00021482-11625338.
  43. ↑ St. Jean, Wendy (June 2025). "Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815–1900 by R. Douglas Hurt (review)". Indiana Magazine of History. 121 (2): 133–135. doi:10.2979/imh.00074.
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