Rural Areas, Rural Communities Quotes



Both Mrs. Roosevelt and the President, wealthy sophisticated “city” people, went out of their way to learn about rural life in the country, and they both were always champions and defenders of agriculture and rural America—much more so than many politicians who came from rural states.


Urbanization has often alarmed the power structure. Given the harsher form of urban poverty compared with rural poverty, it was hard for politicians to understand the draw of the cities. They did not then understand the value and importance of greater opportunity, greater privacy and anonymity, more choice and more de facto freedom. Bannerman and many others would have been totally surprised that in the second decade of the 21st century, more than half the people in the entire world were living in cities and suburbs.


There had been a Chinese Revolution in 1911, but although there were changes at the seat of government and in urban areas, the rural areas where most of the people lived changed little if at all. The revolution failed as a result of it became a revolution without reform.