Agrarian art and literature are about humanity’s relationships with the land. Historian Richard Scheuerman’s Harvest Hands: Reapers and Threshers in American and Modern European Art and Literature explores this theme through the work of painters, writers, collectors, and others across the past five centuries. Scheuerman organizes evidence of vital grain harvests being the reliably unifying experience for the wellbeing of civilization. The act of harvesting gives the participants a spiritual bond and understanding of obligations to care for each other and Mother Earth. No matter the differences, such as race, ethnicity, religion, rituals, place, and time; this book shows how harvests have nurtured and sustained various cultures throughout modern history.

Insightful, eloquent, honest, and hopeful, Scheuerman’s work shows that, through the process of land stewardship, harvest does more than feed our bodies: harvesting in harmony with the land also nurtures the heart and soul of mankind. This book reminds us that our care for natural systems is essential to supporting our spirit as well as our populations and should not be taken for granted.