An Interview with David Danbom, Historian of Rural America

Historians of an older rural America are rare in our time. Urbanization, globalization, and recent trends in the discipline of history have led many in the profession in other directions. One major exception to this trend is the work of the now retired historian David Danbom, who taught at North Dakota State University for thirty-six years. Professor Danbom is the author of several seminal books on rural America: The Resisted Revolution: Urban America and the Industrialization of Agriculture, 1900–1930 (Iowa State University Press, 1979), “The World of Hope”: Progressives and the Struggle for an Ethical Public Life (Temple University Press, 1987), “Born in the Country”: A History of Rural America, second edition (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), and the forthcoming Sod Busting: How Families Made Farms on the Nineteenth-Century Plains (Johns Hopkins University Press). One way to highlight the importance of the study of rural America is to learn the story of significant historians and how they came to focus on rural life. Toward that end, Great Plains Quarterly presents this extended interview with Danbom, who reflects on his turn toward the study of the rural American past, some of the major debates in rural historiography, the field of Great Plains history, the process that led to publication of his oft-cited book Born in the Country, and his current project on the settlement of the Plains. Jon Lauck conducted the following interview with Professor Danbom in December 2010.

Let’s start out by having you talk a bit about your early life.

I was born and raised in Denver. My father did a number of things. When I was a young child he sold truck parts, but he lost his job in the recession of 1958. Shortly thereafter he started a bicycle shop, which he owned for about ten years. He had only a one-room-school education but was a hard worker. My mother was somewhat more educated, having a high school diploma. She worked as a journalist when she was young, and during World War II was the first female bureau chief for International News Service. She was a stay-at-home mom when my brother and I were young, but when my dad lost his job she went back to work (as did I, carrying the Denver Post). Eventually she became public relations director at the Colorado Department of Health, and she finished her career teaching technical journalism at Colorado State University.

How did your parents come to be in Colorado?

My parents were both from southwest Iowa. Mom was born in Shenandoah and Dad was born in Stanton, a Swedish town. They married after Dad got home from the war, and moved initially to Great Falls, Montana, where I believe Dad had an army friend. They lived there for only a few months before moving to Denver. I think they went there because Mom had an uncle there and another in Loveland.

Is Danbom a Swedish name?

Yes. The first Danbom was Gustav Edmundson, who took the name “Danbom” in the 1790s when he joined the Swedish army. He was from the village of Dansbo, so apparently there was some connection. Every Danbom is a descendent of that man.

Would it be safe to say you had some strong midwestern small-town roots because of your parents’ Iowa heritage?

I think my parents’ midwestern origins were reflected in our family. They had the values and prejudices of their place and time, some bad and some good. I know they believed in achievement, saving, prudence, and hard work; whether those are particularly midwestern values or not I will leave to you to judge.

Where were you educated?

I received my undergraduate degree at Colorado State University. I received a fellowship to Stanford, where I received my master’s and PhD degrees.

Do you consider yourself a westerner by origin?

I don’t think of myself in regional terms. I think of myself as an American.

Were there historians at Colorado State that had an influence on you and your career path?

Very much so. There was a...