“Farmers’ fortunes,” by Warren Frye

“Farmers’ fortunes,” by Warren Frye

The rural–urban divide has been a persistent and compelling theme throughout human history, but in our day the class of person once thought of as the land-tilling peasant has almost completely died out in the West—except, perhaps, as a lazy pejorative. Before 1950, however, about three-quarters of the world’s population resided in the countryside, and that portion was larger still in much of Eastern Europe. These people were not the great politi…