John Deere: A History of The Tractor

by Randy Leffingwell

No tractor has achieved a more iconic status than John Deere. It's simple, two-cylinder tractors proved just the reliable, dependable tool the early 20th century American farmer needed to take the great leap from farming with animals to mechanized farming. Although a late comer to the motorized farming industry, today John Deere's two-cylinder tractors are the most sought after collector tractors in the world. Always a conservative company, John Deere stuck with its two-cylinder tractors into the middle part of the century, long after every other manufacturer had moved on to four- and six-cylinder tractors. Yet these simple, noble machines continued to serve their market. When John Deere entered the multi-cylinder fray, it did so with the most advanced, groundbreaking machines ever built the New Generation tractors. These tractors set the trends for all subsequent tractor development through the latter half of the 20th century.Today John Deere stands alone as the last of the great American independent ag manufacturers. Yet it is still going strong, still setting trends, and still building the icons of the future.

Hardcover

First published November 4, 2004

About the author

Photographer and writer, Randy Leffingwell, has more than 35 books in print, primarily on Americana subjects. These cover interests and areas as diverse as the American barn and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, California’s wine country and John Deere farm tractors. His awareness of and attraction to moving things goes back as far as he can remember, to the first Dinky Toys and Match Box cars his father and mother gave him. His practical introduction to real sports cars came several years later when his uncle took him to watch a weekend of racing events at Meadowdale International Raceway in suburban Chicago.

Throughout all this time, however, he imagined himself becoming an architect and his life-long admiration of buildings and design began with frequent trips to downtown Chicago. While in undergraduate studies at Kansas University in the architectural engineering sequence, he discovered photography, journalism, and reawakened an earlier passion for writing. He scarcely looked back as he shifted his major studies from architecture, through English, Art History, psychology, and finally to the William Allen White school of Journalism for a BS in photojournalism.

Following graduation from KU, Randy began a successful career as a photojournalist first at the Kansas City TIMES, then joining the staff of the Chicago SUN-TIMES where he remained for nine years. He then worked as associate editor at AutoWeek magazine in Detroit, before being hired by the Los Angeles TIMES as a writer/photographer. He worked for the TIMES for 11 years, covering everything from news stories to personality profiles to food features throughout Italy, film festivals in France and Utah, and live theater in London. It was, he says, a great job and a great place to work.

His latest project is a large history of Harley-Davidson for them. During this project, he photographed 193 motorcycles from the Harley-Davidson Archives Collection and he completed the corresponding text for the book in early April 2007. Release of this 432 page book tentatively is scheduled for early 2008.

Reviews

[Jon Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read John Deere: A History of the Tractor by Randy Leffingwell. I enjoyed the book and it had a lot of good information for anyone who wants to learn more about John Deere Tractors. The book tells the story of how Deere’s engineers created and developed their first tractors, then goes on to tell about how the John Deere Company and its employees survived the Great Depression. After the Great depression the book tells of how the company became an industry innovator and why John Deere as a company is where it is today. Overall I loved the book and urge all tractor and farm historians to read it.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for anyone who loves tractors - in real life, or in (my) fantasy world.