The Farmers Who Fought: Spring Break project leads to publication for USI history major

What started off as a Spring Break project to keep sophomore history major McKenna Love busy evolved into a published manuscript. This past July, Love published her first book, The Farmers Who Fought, a genealogy about three of her great-grandparents, William Haber, Roy McCurry and John Wheeler, who fought in World War II.  

“I had a hard second semester my freshman year,” Love said. “I was just homesick and stuff. When I went home for Spring Break, I was kind of afraid that if I didn’t find something to do, I would get lazy. So, I started the project to connect with my grandparents over the break and to keep myself busy.” 

Once she began researching for her book, she quickly realized how much information was out there for her to find, and it would take her more than a week to get the full story.  

“I had no idea how much stuff you could find about everyday people if you really look hard,” Love said. “Once I started looking hard and found information, I was bound and determined to get as much as I could. I realized there was so much that it was going to take me longer.”  

Love began her research by writing down the information she had been told all her life. Then she started looking at census records and interviewing people who knew her great grandparents.  

“If I wanted to really get to know these people who I never met, I was going to have to talk to people who knew them,” she said. “That’s when I started doing interviews with their children and their grandchildren, just to get a better sense of who they were.”  

Love organized all the information into three separate documents, and eventually took all the information she had and started piecing it together into a narrative. She never anticipated publishing it.  

“My original thought was just printing it out and putting it in a binder for my family to enjoy,” she said. “But it got to the point where it was so long that I wasn’t sure where I was going to be able to print that and make mass copies of it.”  

Love searched for a publisher and found Heritage Books, a publication specializing in genealogy and local histories, and they picked up Love’s book right away. They created the cover and supplied everything needed to publish it, and she didn’t have to pay anything. All she had to do was sign a contract saying they could produce her work and give them a copy of her manuscript.  

The introduction of The Famers Who Fought explains the agricultural history during the time after World War I and up until World War II and how the Great Depression impacted families in the farming business. Love then introduces her three great grandfathers, William Haber, Roy Mccurry and John Wheeler, who served in the army and navy. A chapter is dedicated to each of them, and Love talks about their life before the war, what they did during the war and what they did after the war. The final chapter, “Remembering the Homefront,” is about her great grandfather Ralph Love, who wasn’t able to fight in the war because he worked in a steel mill.  

“Steel was obviously very important to the war effort,” Love said. “So that’s what his chapter is about.”  

The book closes with an epilogue about the years after the war, and the start of the Cold War and how it affected agriculture.  

Love hopes to become a history professor, and she plans to continue doing short publications into graduate school.  

“As for projects, I’m writing a paper this semester, and I’m hoping to focus on Nazi ideology and how it impacted homoerotic behavior in Nazi Germany. I’m really excited to see where that could go because I think it could be a really interesting paper, with a lot of new perspectives,” she said. “I would love to do another short publication, but a lot of the ideas I have for short publications could be things I write about in grad school. So, I don’t want to take up what I could use in my academic projects.”  

In junior high, Love had a history teacher who inspired her by creating a classroom environment where was involved in what she was learning and where she was able to research the topics she was passionate about.

“I think that’s really important, especially at the post-secondary level,” she said. “I know when professors give me the freedom to explore the things I like, with this book, or with some of the projects I’m doing this semester, I find myself working on it in my free time when I don’t have to. I think that’s a big way to get students involved.”  

Love encourages her readers to listen to the stories people tell because they add different perspectives to historical dialogues.  

“History to me personally is telling stories that people haven’t heard yet and bringing new perspectives into historical dialogues. Because there’s always something else to add,” she said. “There’s always different perspectives and more to learn.”  

“One of the big things I bring up in the intro of the book is the importance of listening to the stories people tell you while they’re alive,” Love said. “If people are willing to share their stories with you, be willing to listen, because you never know where it could take you.”

This piece was written by University Strategic Communication student worker Tegan Ruhl.