{"product_id":"flax-americana-a-history-of-the-fibre-and-oil-that-covered-a-continent-paperback","title":"Flax Americana: A History of the Fibre and Oil That Covered a Continent - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJoshua Macfadyen\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFarmers feed cities, but starting in the nineteenth century they painted them too. Flax from Canada and the northern United States produced fibre for textiles and linseed oil for paint - critical commodities in a century when wars were fought over fibre and when increased urbanization demanded expanded paint markets.\u003ci\u003e Flax Americana\u003c\/i\u003e re-examines the changing relationships between farmers, urban consumers, and the land through a narrative of Canada's first and most important industrial crop. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eInitially a specialty crop grown by Mennonites and other communities on contracts for small-town mill complexes, flax became big business in the late nineteenth century as multinational linseed oil companies quickly displaced rural mills. Flax cultivation spread across the northern plains and prairies, particularly along the edges of dryland settlement, and then into similar ecosystems in South America's Pampas. Joshua MacFadyen's detailed examination of archival records reveals the complexity of a global commodity and its impact on the eastern Great Lakes and northern Great Plains. He demonstrates how international networks of scientists, businesses, and regulators attempted to predict and control the crop's frontier geography, how evolving consumer concerns about product quality and safety shaped the market and its regulations, and how the nature of each region encouraged some forms of business and limited others. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe northern flax industry emerged because of border-crossing communities. By following the plant across countries and over time\u003ci\u003e Flax Americana \u003c\/i\u003esheds new light on the ways that commodities, frontiers, and industrial capitalism shaped the modern world.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoshua MacFadyen is Canada Research Chair in Geospatial Humanities and associate professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Prince Edward Island.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 368\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 x 9.2 x 6.2 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 10, 2018\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67960958910685,"sku":"9780773553477","price":73.36,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/9867\/8237\/files\/RoOZdrR2IC9780773553477.webp?v=1790833901","url":"https:\/\/handfulofbooks.com\/products\/flax-americana-a-history-of-the-fibre-and-oil-that-covered-a-continent-paperback","provider":"Handful of Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}