From the time when mules pulled the plow until the days when microwaves were used in farm kitchens, the contributions of women have been vital to the development of United States agriculture. "Women at the Reins" contains the stories of these women. Collected as a special "From Mules to Microwaves" project by the American Agri-Women, these stories preserve oral and written histories documenting rural lifestyles from a female perspective.

Eighty-one seconds. That's all the time it took a diabolical tornado to crash through Pilger, Nebraska, on June 16, 2014, destroying more than 40 percent of its homes plus its business district. Eighty-one seconds. That's all the time it took for a tornado to destroy farms of the same size on the same day throughout the countryside near Stanton, Pilger, Wisner and Wakefield, Nebraska. Four tornadoes, intent on destruction, were even more infamous that day because two were twins, spawned simultaneously from the same supercell. One charged through Pilger and its sister dropped down to begin its...