This book attempts to place in historical perspective the evolution of Chilean rural society from its foundation in the sixteenth century to 1975.

Arnold Bauer grew up on his family's 160-acre farm in Goshen Township in Clay County, Kansas, amidst a land of prairie grass and rich creek-bottom soil. His meditative and moving account of those years depicts a century-long narrative of struggle, survival, and demise. A coming-of-age memoir set in the 1930s to 50s, it blends local history with personal reflection to paint a realistic picture of farm life and families from a now-lost world.

Bauer's was typical of true family farms, where wives supplemented family income by selling butter and eggs and children provided unpaid labor. These...