Typically I am bored stiff by academic books on agricultural history. It seems most of these books work hard to remove the human element from the narrative, if there is one. I say books rather than authors because I know a few agricultural academics and found them to be insightful and genuinely human. Must be something about the publishing/academic filter that squeezes the juice right out of the material. So when Mule South arrived at our office, I did not get around to look at it for a while. When I did, I was pulled right in to what I found to be an outstanding “narrative” laid right over the top of excellent scholarship. I was so impressed with the material and the presentation that I knew I wanted to do a review but felt challenged that anything I would do could not do justice to the full import of the book. So I contacted the publisher and received permission to republish an entire chapter in this issue.