Tuten (history, Juanita College), who worked on the Hobonny rice plantation in South Carolina during his college years, studies the decline and demise of the South Carolina rice industry since the Civil War. He focuses on the Lowcountry rice plantations of the Heyward, Middleton, Cheves, Pringle, and other families, representing a range of soil types and sites on different rivers, and how rice producers and former slaves tried to revive production from Reconstruction to 1930, trying out innovations in agricultural techniques and tools and struggling against the postwar economy, changes in the labor force, increased national and international competition, and a series of hurricanes that destroyed crops and infrastructure, causing the eventual demise of the industry. He focuses on how these planters succeeded in the 50-year period and why they persisted when it was not economically viable, with discussion of adaptation, environmental history, and cultural history. He does not discuss the rice culture of Georgia. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)