We examine 100 years of rural education research within the context of the demographic, migratory, economic, and social changes that have affected rural America in the past century. We use systematic review of the literature on rural teacher recruitment, retention, and training as a case study for looking at the constancy and change in the construction of "the rural school problem," a concept drawn from early work on this topic by urban educational reformers, throughout the last 100 years. We find that attention to rurality as a factor affecting education boomed in the first half of the 20th century thanks to early 20th century commitments to American modernity, waning in the second half of the 20th century when this modernity was believed to have been more or less achieved. Neoliberal economic policies and the precariousness of rural economies revived interest in the resilience and adaptability of rural America, however, leading to a renaissance in rural education research, but largely restricted to a few sub-field journals. We discuss the implications of these changes for the future of rural education research, including the use of place and space as a lens for thinking about education.