In his new book, The Politics of Food Supply: U.S. Agricultural Policy in the World Economy (Cambridge University Press), Associate Professor Bill Winders deals with an important and timely issue - the political and economic forces that have shaped agricultural policies in the United States during the past eighty years.

Winders, an Associate Professor in the School of History, Technology, and Society, explores the complex interactions of class, market, and state as they have affected the formulation and application of agricultural policy decisions since the New Deal.

Winders shows how divisions and coalitions within Southern, Corn Belt, and Wheat Belt agriculture were central to the ebb and flow of price supports and production controls. In addition, he provides analysis of past and recent trends in supply management policy highlighting the roles of the world economy, the civil rights movement, and existing national policy.