“Mr. Dahlstrom…has written a superb history of the tractor and this long-forgotten period of capitalism in U.S. agriculture. We now know the whole story of when farming, business and the free-market economy diverged, divided and conquered.”
-Michael Taube, Wall Street Journal
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 twentieth 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.
“Neil Dahlstrom’s Tractor Wars engagingly tells the story of one of the great business battles of the twentieth century. Anyone interested in business, agriculture, or tractor history will enjoy this great tale, well-told.”
Gary Hoover, Executive Director, American Business History Center
About Neil
Neil Dahlstrom is an archivist, writer, and speaker. He grew up and lives in the Quad Cities, once known as the farm implement capital of the world. Today the Quad Cities is a vibrant community of cities on the Illinois and Iowa sides of the Mississippi River with an exciting history of innovation in the farm equipment and automobile industries.
Neil works at Fortune 100 company John Deere, as the archivist and historian. He is a member of the Kitchen Cabinet, the Food and Agriculture Advisory Board at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and Visit Quad Cities.
Neil’s research and speeches have taken him to historical societies and museums, abandoned factories-turned-coffee shops, and state-of-the-art research centers across the country.
The John Deere Story: A Biography of Plowmakers John and Charles Deere
Today, John Deere is remembered as the inventor of the steel plow. Who was this legendary man and how did he create the internationally renowned company that still bears his name? What is the legacy of his son, Charles?
Lincoln’s Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels, and a President’s Mission to Destroy the Press
In the blistering summer of 1861, President Lincoln began pressuring and ordering the physical shutdown of any Northern newspaper that voiced. The effect was a complete dismantling of the free press.
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