Deeply Rooted Evaluation

Deeply Rooted by Lisa M. Hamilton was a book that I have enjoyed reading as it tells the interesting stories of farmers across the country. She begins by telling the story of Harry Lewis who is a farmer in Texas who advocates for keeping farms the way they were back in the day. The next section introduces Virgil Trujillo, a farmer from New Mexico who strongly believes that we are one with the land and we need to maintain that mindset. Then, David Podoll from North Dakota is introduced and he uses machines as a way to keep up with the farming of his land. Hamilton writes to show that farming is a way to live by and that there are many ways of keeping up with this lifestyle, and in the words of Harry, “you get out here, and it’s real” (Hamilton, 99).

Hamilton does a very well job when it comes to explaining the stories of these three farmers in hopes to inform readers of the agricultural ways of life. In a review by Deborah Adams, it states that “the heroes in her story are clearly the Harrys and the Virgils and the Davids who stand against the mob bosses with only their moral certainty and a handful of faith” (Adams). This is an accurate statement as Hamilton successfully depicts the farmers’ hopes to keep farming strong. It is unacceptable in their eyes to turn to any other way besides farming and Hamilton is able to explain this through following a day in the life in their shoes and we, the readers, can understand the importance. The message being put across is that we cannot let farming die out to modern technology and we must stick with old routines. Adams’ review shines a light on this idea brought forward by Hamilton in Deeply Rooted.

If I were asked to give this book a recommendation, I would as long as the reader would be able to see the bigger picture of this book. It would take for someone to be mature and see both sides of this problem and realize that farming is necessary in our lives. I would definitely recommend Deeply Rooted to anyone interested in this particular topic. I would also highly recommend it to anyone who needs to be informed of the ways farming is beneficial to our lives and that we must not let that slip away.