Why “Hometown Best” Takes More Than a Glance

We’ve been an agrarian society for centuries, and large-scale industrialization is only a few decades old. Most urban residents, if you trace back three generations, came from rural areas—everyone was a farmer, everyone made their living tending the land.

For farmers, the so-called hometown is essentially the land itself; as long as you own a plot, that’s your home.

That’s why ancient people despised leaving home—leaving meant abandoning your property. Usually, departure came from fleeing disaster or famine, and what awaited them was often indentured servitude or tenant farming.

The unspoken message behind the common saying “there’s no place like home” is the deep attachment agrarian people felt toward the land they worked—or, more broadly, toward their means of production.