"[A]n exhaustive interdisciplinary synthesis spanning history, sociology, environmental science, philosophy, and literature. In doing so, he delivers an impressive dissection of the urban-rural divide in the United States and provides useful insights into how we can begin to dismantle it.... Particularly salient is Fairfield’s examination of urban-rural interdependence.... Fairfield delivers an important contribution to the soft underbelly of today’s political ecology.... Fairfield’s masterful synthesis provides scholars working at the intersections of agricultural, environmental, and rural history with a useful resource. For these reasons, Crossing Great Divides is a must-read."—Agricultural History

"[T]his is a useful work for its (re)introduction to many of us of John Dewey’s Pragmatism with its emphasis on intellect and experience conjoined with an appreciation of the contingency of knowing, and for Fairfield’s insistence that we live in a world of intrinsic as well as instrumental value.... It raises interesting questions, offers a direction for at least partial solutions, and invites us to further discussion."—Journal of Urban Affairs

“Fairfield is a credible and knowledgeable guide for this journey between city and country.... In Crossing Great Divides, he employs vivid biographical recollections and historical analysis to ground his experiences and observations.... Readers will be rewarded with an understanding of the urgency of overcoming America's urban-rural divide and the tools needed to help dismantle it.... [T]he creative potential of storytelling allows us to revise collective understandings of the city and the country, for the good of all.”—Contemporary Sociology

“Fairfield declares the global economy as environmentally destructive and addresses the skepticism and divisiveness that plague the American conscious these days.... One of the great contributions of Crossing Great Divides is that it (re)introduces readers to ideas and arguments that many of us have familiarity with, but that we had not, perhaps, previously considered in this conjoined format of the longue durée. In presenting this synthesis in such a manner, Farfield succeeds in pushing us to think and reconsider how to properly frame current questions that might lead us to greater solutions.”—Environmental History

“The perceived dichotomy between city and country is one of America’s most persistent and problematic cultural touchstones. In this important book, John D. Fairfield knits crucial historical, political, and ecological analyses together. He convincingly shows how serious the problem is and creatively identifies ways forward. He opens the way to achieve truly regional sustainability and justice through the reciprocal connections between city and country that we have too long neglected. Not only is this a work of deep and synthetic scholarship, but it also reflects clear-eyed lived experience that brings city and country within a single vision.”—Steward T. A. Pickett, Urban Ecologist and Distinguished Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and coeditor of Science for the Sustainable City: Empirical Insights from the Baltimore School of Urban Ecology