2 interviews. The Linda Terry interviews focus on three areas of her life: the transition from her childhood as the daughter of the mayor of a rural town to her life on a central Iowa commune; her roles as a progressive woman, farm wife of a leading rural activist, and mother; and her experiences as a widow and single mother. The interviews are highly personal accounts as well as documents of the development of progressive politics in Iowa before the farm crisis emerged on the national level. Her discussions about the attendance of young progressives at the meetings of the USFA in the late 1970s provide essential history about continuity between farm radicals of the 1930s and 1980s.

The Donna Winburn interview follows her life chronologically from her childhood on the farm, through several years of working for Maytag Corporation in Newton, Iowa, to her role as wife, mother, and farmer in the 1960s and 1970s. The bulk of the interview consists of her account of her circumstances, experiences, and activism during the 1980s farm crisis. Winburn was the bookkeeper of the family and had a clear grasp of how to deal with bankers and lawyers. She became a public speaker in the 1980s and became active with the Farmers’ Union in the mid 1980s. This interview also recounts her memories of African American children at her high school in the coal mining community of Albia.