Brought together by economist John Ise and first published in 1937, Sod-House Days is a collection of the letters Howard Ruede wrote to his family in Pennsylvania chronicling his first year in Kansas. In minute detail these letters show the hard, wearying work faced by homesteaders in the 1870s, their almost unbelievable poverty, the hardships of poor food, inadequate clothing, crowding, unsanitary conditions, the lack of decent drinking water, the bedbugs and fleas, flies and mosquitoes. The book is in excellent condition.

Product Key Features:

Book Title: Sod-House Days : Letters from a Kansas Homesteader, 1877-78
Author: Howard Ruede
Format: Trade Paperback
Language: English
Features: Reprint
Topic: United States / State & Local / MidWest (IA, IL, In, Ks, MI, MN, MO, North Dakota, Ne, OH, Sd, Wi), United States / 19th Century, United States / General
Publication Year: 1983
Genre: History
Number of Pages: 288 Pages
Dimensions Item Length: 8.5in.
Item Height: 0.7in.
Item Width: 5.5in.
Item Weight: 11.9 Oz
Additional Product Features Lc Classification Number: F687.O7r84 1983
Edition : Reprint
Reviews: "Gives a rich and detailed picture of a place, a time, a personality, and a stage in our national development that has considerable historic value. But its interest goes beyond any appeal to students alone. It is stimulating and suggestive reading for the general publicwho may well find in it something of the quality of a historical novel."New York Times Book Review " These letters supply first-hand information, of value to the historian, concerning the condition of agriculture in Kansas at a time when the seeds of agrarian discontent were being widely sown."Times Literary Supplement "Unlike most rural folk, homesteader Ruede possessed the ability of expressing himself clearly in writing. His word pictures are vivid accounts of experiences gained in carving a farm from the Western plains."Rural Sociology, "Gives a rich and detailed picture of a place, a time, a personality, and a stage in our national development that has considerable historic value. But its interest goes beyond any appeal to students alone. It is stimulating and suggestive reading for the general public--who may well find in it something of the quality of a historical novel."-- New York Times Book Review " These letters supply first-hand information, of value to the historian, concerning the condition of agriculture in Kansas at a time when the seeds of agrarian discontent were being widely sown."-- Times Literary Supplement "Unlike most rural folk, homesteader Ruede possessed the ability of expressing himself clearly in writing. His word pictures are vivid accounts of experiences gained in carving a farm from the Western plains."-- Rural Sociology
Copyright Date: 1983
Target Audience: Trade
Lccn: 83-081787
Dewey Decimal: 978.1/215031
Dewey Edition: 19
Illustrated: Yes