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Between 1900 and 1940 American family farming gave way to what came to be called agribusiness. Government policies, consumer goods aimed at rural markets, and the increasing consolidation of agricultural industries all combined to bring about changes in farming strategies that had been in use since the frontier era. Because the Midwestern farm economy played as important a part in the relations of family and community, new approaches to farm production meant new patterns in interpersonal relations as well. This study focuses on these relations - of gender and community - to shed new light on the events of this crucial period. Before 1900 the important role of women in the survival of farm families had enabled them to negotiate fairly egalitarian family relations and also gain control of neighborhood economic resources. But as govemment policy and the agricultural crises of the 1920s and 30s restricted farm families' choices, those who remained on the land had to emphasize cash-earning over cash-saving. With the coming of agribusiness, women and children faced a system that increasingly limited the ways they could contribute and threatened both family and community resources. Neth's "private lives" approach aims to contrast with the work of historians who have focused on public policy, institutions, and macroeconomic changes.