Monmouth Alum Neil Dahlstrom ’98 to Tell the Story of his Book ‘Tractor Wars’ on March 14 in Dahl Chapel

Share

Last year, Monmouth College classics and history major Neil Dahlstrom ’98 authored Tractor Wars: John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture, which won the 2022 American Book Fest Award for Best History-General.

Dahlstrom will return to his alma mater March 14 to speak about writing the book and the story it tells. Free and open to the public, his talk will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.

Before John Deere, Ford and International Harvester became icons of American business, they were competitors in a forgotten battle for the farm. By the turn of the 20th century, four million people had left rural America and moved to cities, leaving the nation’s farms shorthanded for the work of plowing, planting, cultivating, harvesting and threshing. That’s why the introduction of the tractor is an innovation story as essential as man’s landing on the moon.

Published by Matt Holt in January 2022, Tractor Wars was praised in a review in the Wall Street Journal as “a superb history of the tractor and this long-forgotten period of capitalism in U.S. agriculture.”

(A previous College article about the book appears here.)

The branded properties and heritage manager at John Deere, Dahlstrom is also the author of Lincoln’s Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels and a President’s Mission to Destroy the Press and The John Deere Story: A Biography of Plowmakers John and Charles Deere.

***Courtesy of Barry McNamara, Monmouth College***

Spread the word

Trending Now

Featured News Podcasts

Subscribe to our Community Newsletter

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Prairie Communications, 55 Public Square, Monmouth, IL, 61462, https://977wmoi.com/. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Choose a Category

Continue Reading

Get Ready to be Amazed!

Save the date. The Warren County History Museum’s Great Nicola Magic Festival will return this September, shares Director Dr. Eugene Watkins: “On the 27th, on that Friday evening, we are

Search Warrant Leads to Two Drug Arrests

On 03/15/24 at approximately 1700 hours, Fulton County Sheriff’s Office deputies and members of the West Central Illinois Special Response Team served a search warrant in the 600 block of