From warm center to ragged edge : the erosion of midwestern literary and historical regionalism, 1920-1965 / Jon K. Lauck.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lauck, Jon, 1971- author.

Series:

Iowa and the Midwest experience

Iowa and the midwest experience

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Middle West--History and criticism.

American literature.

Literature and history--Middle West.

Literature and history.

Intellectual life.

Middle West--In literature.

Middle West.

Middle West--Intellectual life.

Literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xii, 252 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, [2017]

Summary:

"During the half-century after the Civil War, intellectuals and politicians assumed the Midwest to be the font and heart of American culture. Despite the persistence of strong currents of midwestern regionalism during the 1920s and 1930s, the region went into eclipse during the post-World War II era. In the apt language of Minnesota's F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Midwest slid from being the "warm center" of the republic to its "ragged edge." This book explains the factors that triggered the demise of the Midwest's regionalist energies, from anti-midwestern machinations in the literary world and the inability of midwestern writers to break through the cultural politics of the era to the growing dominance of a coastal, urban culture. These developments paved the way for the proliferation of images of the Midwest as flyover country, the Rust Belt, a staid and decaying region. Yet Lauck urges readers to recognize persisting and evolving forms of midwestern identity and to resist the forces that squelch the nation's interior voices"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Myth of the Midwestern "Revolt from the Village" 11

Chapter 2 The Failed Revolt Against the Revolt 37

Chapter 3 The Decline of Midwestern History 69.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781609384968

1609384962

OCLC:

960718006