Finding a New Midwestern History

392 Pages·2018·7.893 MB·English

by  Jon K. Lauck, Gleaves Whitney, Joseph Hogan

Finding a New Midwestern History

F I N D I N G A N E W
M I D W E S T E R N
H I S T O R Y
(cid:2)
Edited and with an introduction by Jon K. Lauck,
Gleaves Whitney, and Joseph Hogan
University of Nebraska Press (cid:18) Lincoln and London
© 2018 by the Board of Regents of the University
of Nebraska. Acknowledgments for the use of
copyrighted material appear on page 327, which
constitute an extension of the copyright page. All
rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States
of America
Publication of this volume was assisted by The
Virginia Faulkner Fund, established in memory
of Virginia Faulkner, editor in chief of the
University of Nebraska Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Lauck, Jon, 1971– editor. | Whitney, Gleaves,
editor. | Hogan, Joseph, 1946– editor.
Title: Finding a new midwestern history / edited
and with an introduction by Jon K. Lauck, Gleaves
Whitney, and Joseph Hogan.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2017053349
isbn 9781496201829 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 9781496208798 (epub)
isbn 9781496208804 (mobi)
isbn 9781496208811 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Middle West— History.
Classification: lcc f351 .f46 2018 | ddc 977— dc23 lc
record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017053349
Set in Minion Pro by E. Cuddy.
(cid:18)
Dedicated to the Memory of
James Seaton, 1944– 2017:
husband, father,
scholar, midwesterner

Contents
List of Illustrations x
Introduction: Toward a New Midwestern History xi
Jon K. Lauck, Joseph Hogan, and Gleaves Whitney
PART 1. THE MIDWEST AS A REGION
Chapter 1. The Birth of the Midwest and the
Rise of Regional Theory 3
Michael C. Steiner
Chapter 2. How Nature and Culture Shaped Early
Settlement in the Midwest 25
James E. Davis
Chapter 3. First Cousins: The Civil War’s Impact on
Midwestern Identity 39
Nicole Etcheson
PART 2. THE MIDWEST’S PEOPLE
Chapter 4. Native Americans and Midwestern History 55
Susan E. Gray
Chapter 5. American and European Immigrant Groups
in the Midwest by the Mid- Nineteenth Century 73
Gregory S. Rose
Chapter 6. Civic Life in a Midwestern Community 96
Paula M. Nelson
Chapter 7. Politics in the Promised Land: How the Great
Migration Shaped the American Midwest 111
Jeffrey Helgeson
PART 3. THE ICONIC MIDWEST
Chapter 8. Midwestern Small Towns 129
John E. Miller
Chapter 9. The Agrarian Midwest: A Geographic Analysis 143
Christopher R. Laingen
Chapter 10. The Role of Sports in the Midwest 161
David R. McMahon
PART 4. MIDWESTERN LANDSCAPES
Chapter 11. The View from the River: Another
Perspective on Midwestern History 177
Michael Allen
Chapter 12. The Midwest’s Spiritual Landscapes 196
Jon Butler
Chapter 13. The Development of Midwestern Cities 211
Jon Teaford
PART 5. THE MIDWEST’S VOICES
Chapter 14. Of Murals and Mirrors: Midwest
Regionalism Then and Now 227
Zachary Michael Jack
Chapter 15. Midwestern Intellectuals 240
James Seaton
Chapter 16. Midwestern Musicians 251
James P. Leary
Chapter 17. Midwestern Writers: The Fourth Wave 267
David Pichaske
PART 6. THE MIDWESTERN EXPERIENCE
Chapter 18. The Upper Midwest as the Second Promised Land 281
Gleaves Whitney
Chapter 19. Growing Up Midwestern 303
Pamela Riney- Kehrberg
Chapter 20. The Best of Babbitt: The Midwestern
Vision of Arthur Vandenberg 314
Hank Meijer
Chapter 21. Of Conformity and Cosmopolitanism:
Midwestern Identity since World War II 329
J. L. Anderson
List of Contributors 343
Index 349