"In 1981, near the end of the second post-World War II energy crisis and at the onset of the nation's most recent farm crisis, American Energy Farming Systems began to sell and distribute what it called a 'providential plant' destined to be a new and saving crop: the Jerusalem artichoke.

In The Great Jerusalem Artichoke Circus Joseph A. Amato tells the story of the failed attempt by a less-than-honest businessman to introduce this new crop to a depressed agricultural region of the United States. Amato deftly explores the economic and horticultural hysteria that surrounded the promise of the Jerusalem artichoke for American farmers during the attempt to turn what had traditionally been considered a weed into a major cash crop."