Rediscovering the American Midwest

Series Editors: Jon K. Lauck and Patricia Oman

The Making of the Midwest

Essays on the Formation of Midwestern Identity, 1787–1900

Edited by Jon K. Lauck

Everything has a beginning, including the Midwest. During the American colonial period, what would become the Midwest was the “backcountry,” or the area behind the coastal population centers. It was rural and rough, the sort of place that fueled populist resistance to the federal taxation of whiskey. At the time of the Revolution, it was The West, often undifferentiated between north and south and largely associated with Kentucky. In the early years of the republic, however, the regional differentiation deepened and grew until the latter half of the 19th-century, when the Midwest emerged as a fully formed region. The essays in this book help explain this process of region-making.

Contents

ISBN 978-1-942885-76-4 | hardback | 430 pages | $50.00

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ISBN 978-1-942885-75-7 | paperback | 430 pages | $30.00

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Pieces of the Heartland

Representing Midwestern Places

Edited by Andy Oler

Although representations of the Midwest in the 20th century often draw on the tropes of emptiness, evacuation, and loss, Pieces of the Heartland argues for a more complex view of the region. Addressing a variety of midwestern subjects—from creative works to national organizations and tourist brochures—the essays in this collection propose exciting new critical methods for studying the still vibrant geographic heart of the U.S.

Contents

ISBN 978-1-942885-54-2 | paperback | 250 pages | $25.00

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ISBN 978-1-942885-53-5 | hardcover | 250 pages | $40.00

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A Scattering Time

How Modernism Met Midwestern Culture

Edited by Sara Kosiba

The American Midwest does not feature prominently in studies of modernism. Modernism is cosmopolitan and avant-garde, the story goes, whereas the Midwest is . . . not. The essays in this ground-breaking collection tell a different story, arguing for a more nuanced understanding of both modernism and the Midwest. The Midwest, it turns out, has a radical streak.

Contents

ISBN 978-1-942885-52-0 | paperback | 248 pages | $25.00

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ISBN 978-1-942885-51-1 | hardcover | 248 pages | $40.00

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The Midwestern Moment

The Forgotten World of Early Twentieth-Century Midwestern Regionalism, 1880-1940

Edited by Jon K. Lauck

The American Midwest wasn’t always “fly-over country.” In the early 20th century it experienced a flowering of regional energy and industry—Midwestern writers, artists, crusaders, and entrepreneurs dominated in American culture. Essays in this volume seek to bring that forgotten Midwestern Moment back into the spotlight and inspire further research into a period of Midwestern history that has been largely forgotten.

Contents

ISBN 978-1-942885-50-4 | paperback | 304 pages | $25.00

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ISBN 978-1-942885-49-8 | hardcover | 304 pages | $40.00

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