The Early Exploration of Agricultural Modemization in New China:A Study of Agricultural Mechanization During the 1950s and 1960s
Agricultural mechanization is an important element of agricultural modemization in New China during the 1950s and 1960s.The course of agricultural mechanization in this period of New China is mainly manifested as followed:the agricultural cooperative movement constructed a social environment for the application and promotion of agricultural machinery technology and shaped the masses of farmers as mainstay in modernization through the technological path of"combining the domestic and the foreign",which found the main actor and fundamental force for the agricultural mechanization and even the modemized technological change in a wider range of fields in this period.For the country,agricultural mechanization is the strategic layout of the socialist modemization drive in new China;for the rural society,agricultural mechanization is the fundamental means to transform traditional agriculture and realize agricultural modernization.Consequently,the corresponding relationship between the state and the society emerges,namely"a powerful state with a powerful society".From this perspective,the distinctive subjectivity of socialist modemization can be fully valued and deeply interpreted,and people can comprehensively and objectively summarize the path and benefits of the early exploration of agricultural modemization in New China.