The Countryside in the Age of the Modern State"However urban the nation has become," Catherine McNicol Stock and Robert D. Johnston write, "twenty percent of its citizens still live outside major metropolitan areas. Moreover, rural economic activityagricultural, extractive, recreational, and industrialhas an enormous impact on the nation's overall economic well being. The stories of contemporary rural people still have the power to move us. They reflect the values, dreams, and ideals at the core