History is often measured by records of great leaders and events. Nicholas P. Hardeman convinces us that American history can be measured but the shaping force of a quiet monarch- corn. In fact, corn was more than king, it was a way of life, and Hardeman enthusiastically demonstrates that in order to understand the settling and development of America we must know about corn and its influence. Perhaps no volume has come closer to the grass roots of pre-twentieth century America. The history of American worship of property, love of the land, and the work ethic has its source in this country's discovery of the values of corn. When Hardeman speaks of values, he emphasizes the human as equal to the economic values. He describes corn growing in early America from clearing the land through planting, cultivating, and harvesting, as it was done on the single-family farm, once the mainstay of American agriculture. He talks about the problems and the hard work of corn growing that led to an expl