A thesis book, which includes much of interest, -- history, economics, society. Corn treated as a determining factor in the country's growth and development. It betrayed the Indians; it made possible the tobacco trade and slave economy of the South; it protected New England for its fish and fur trade; it conditioned sectional differences; it made possible exploration, pioneering and expansion and the feeding of a growing people; it promoted the creation of towns around mills. Some of it is thin; much of it is worth reading. Valuable informational book in connection with history and geography as supplementary reading.