Il y a eu un colloque sur l'histoire rurale à Berne cet automne:
http://www.ruralhistory2013.org/rh2013/Allez voir les panels, il y aura peut-être des intervenants travaillant sur les Etats-Unis.
Sinon, une petite recherche wikipédia et je trouve ça:
Cyclopedia of American agriculture; a popular survey of agricultural conditions, ed by L. H. Bailey, 4 vol 1907-1909. online edition highly useful compendium
Baron, Hal S. Mixed Harvest: The Second Great Transformation in the Rural North, 1870-1930 (1997) online edition
Bowers, William L. The Country Life Movement in America, 1900-1920 (1974).
Brunner, Edmund de Schweinitz. Rural social trends (1933) online edition
Danbom, David B. Born in the Country: A History of Rural America (1995)
Gjerde, Jon. The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 (1997)
Goreham, Gary A. Encyclopedia of Rural America (2 vol 1997); 438pp; 232 essays by experts on arts, business, community development, economics, education, environmental issues, family, labor, quality of life, recreation, and sports.
Hurt, Douglas, ed. The Rural South Since World War II (1998)
Kirby, Jack Temple. Rural Worlds Lost: The American South 1920-1960 (1987)
Kulikoff; Allan. From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers (2000) online edition
Lauck, Jon. "'The Silent Artillery of Time': Understanding Social Change in the Rural Midwest," Great Plains Quarterly 19 (Fall 1999)
Schafer, Joseph. The social history of American agriculture (1936) online edition
Weeden, William Babcock. Economic and Social History of New England, 1620-1789 (1891) 964 pages; online edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_historyMais je n'ai aucunes connaissances pour dire si ces références sont bonnes ou pas.