During the great American depression the urban unemployed wandered the dust bowl interior in search of a crust.
Returning to their rural origins seemed a natural destination for John Steinbeck's generation of the dispossessed.
Asia's tiger economies produced a similar mass migration from the countryside to grimy city factories over the past 15 years.
Facing recession and the realisation that frantic labour-intensive economics may be done for, policy makers are already pondering the next Asian growth paradigm.
Speaking last week, the King of Thailand offered surprising advice. Thailand should ditch its mad dash for industrialisation and build a farm-based economy supporting the entire nation.
Although treated with unfailing reverence, the monarch's words will have jarred Bangkok's city slickers who remain committed to making Thailand a capitalist hub. For regional business leaders such musings must appear a forlorn desire for paradise lost.