Linda Kirk - Böcker

Richard Cumberland and Natural Law represents the first major biographical sketch of Cumberland to appear in English. A critic and antagonist of Thomas Hobbes, a proto-Utilitarian and a man of the cloth, Richard Cumberland may be England's least recognised seventeenth century polymath, often overshadowed by the likes of John Bramhall and John Wallis. His magnum opus, De Legibus Naturae (On Natural Laws) stands in quality amongst the greatest works of natural philosophy and ethics of his time period. Here Kirk outlines Cumberland's significant philosophical contributions as well as situating him in his intellectual and historical context. She describes his life, his work as Bishop of Peterborough, and his pioneering contributions to natural law theory. Kirk also includes a chapter on the various editions of Cumberland's masterwork and the praise it received from his contemporaries. Richard Cumberland and Natural Law remains the foremost collection of biographical information of Richard Cumberland, as well as offering a comprehensive discussion of his theories.

In the 1960s, Tillamook County was at war with itself. As the regional dairy industry shifted from small local factories to larger consolidated factories, as food safety and factory conditions became more important, as the profit margins between milk and cheese collapsed, Tillamook farmers found themselves at a crossroads. How should the producers work with distributors, and how could they advocate for their businesses without pricing themselves out of the market? On one side of the debate was Beale Dixon, head of the County Creamery Association, the co-op that represented the county’s farmers and packaged their products for the big dairy distributors in the Willamette Valley. Dixon set up a scheme to offer low-interest, low-collateral loans to the supermarkets that stocked CCA products; he argued it was a cheap, easy way to ensure good will—and continued purchases—in a tight market. On the other side was George Milne, a respected farmer and board member of Tillamook Cheese and Dairy Association, the largest producer in the CCA. Milne believed that Dixon’s loan program amounted to fraud and embezzlement, and cheated the farmers out of money they were due.  The question of loans soon spiraled out into a community-wide dispute, exacerbated by a complex web of family and business relationships that made conflicts of interest hard to avoid. Dixon worked for both CCA and Cheese and Dairy; he was fired from one but not the other. The Cheese War raged for the better part of a decade, across board meetings and courtrooms and the community itself. Co-op members traded recall petitions and rival factions distributed misleading petitions and letters. While largely unknown outside of Tillamook County, the Cheese War was so divisive that some families remain fractured today.  Sisters Marilyn Milne and Linda Kirk were children of the Cheese War. In elementary school, they saw how it absorbed their parents, Barbara and George Milne. As adults, they realized they actually knew very little about it and set out to learn the real story. The authors have conducted years of research through the archives and newspapers of Tillamook County and conducted numerous interviews and oral histories of key players in the Cheese War and their families. As Americans become ever more interested in food supply chains and ethical consumption, here is a story of the very human factors behind one of Oregon’s most famous brands.