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The rural Midwest since World War II / edited by J. L. Anderson ; foreword by R. Douglas Hurt ; Shaun Allshouse, design.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Anderson, Rodney, Author.
- Hurt, R. Douglas, author of introduction, etc.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Agriculture--Middle West--History--20th century.
- Agriculture.
- Sociology, Rural--Middle West.
- Sociology, Rural.
- Middle West--Rural conditions.
- Middle West.
- Middle West--Economic conditions.
- Middle West--Social conditions--20th century.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (335 p.)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- DeKalb, Illinois : NIU Press, 2014.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- J.L. Anderson seeks to change the belief that the Midwest lacks the kind of geographic coherence, historical issues, and cultural touchstones that have informed regional identity in the American South, West, and Northeast. The goal of this illuminating volume is to demonstrate uniqueness in a region that has always been amorphous and is increasingly so. Midwesterners are a dynamic people who shaped the physical and social landscapes of the great midsection of the nation, and they are presented as such in this volume that offers a general yet informed overview of the region after World War II.The contributors—most of whom are Midwesterners by birth or residence—seek to better understand a particular piece of rural America, a place too often caricatured, misunderstood, and ignored. However, the rural landscape has experienced agricultural diversity and major shifts in land use. Farmers in the region have successfully raised new commodities from dairy and cherries to mint and sugar beets. The region has also been a place where community leaders fought to improve their economic and social well-being, women redefined their roles on the farm, and minorities asserted their own version of the American Dream.The rural Midwest is a regional melting pot, and contributors to this volume do not set out to sing its praises or, by contrast, assume the position of Midwestern modesty and self-deprecation. The essays herein rewrite the narrative of rural decline and crisis, and show through solid research and impeccable scholarship that rural Midwesterners have confronted and created challenges uniquely their own.
- Contents:
- A landscape transformed: ecosystems and natural resources in the Midwest / James A. Pritchard
- Ecology, economy, labor: the Midwestern farm landscape since 1945 / Kendra Smith-Howard
- Beyond the Rust Bowl: the neglected history of the rural Midwest's industrialization after World War II / Wilson J. Warren
- Midwestern rural communities in the Post-World War II era / Cornelia Butler Flora and Jan L. Flora
- Uneasy dependency: rural and farm policy and the Midwest since 1945 / J.L. Anderson
- Farmwomen in the Midwest since 1945 / Jenny Barker Devine
- Childhood in the rural Midwest since 1945 / Pamela Riney-Kehrberg
- "The whitest of occupations"? African-Americans in the rural Midwest, 1940-2010 / Debra A. Reid
- Hispanics in the rural Midwest since 1945 / Jim Norris
- Internal alternate: the Midwestern Amish since 1945 / Steven D. Reschly
- Conclusion: the indistinct distinctiveness of rural Midwestern culture / David Danbom.
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 9781501751318
- 150175131X
- 9781609090906
- 160909090X
- OCLC:
- 879551935
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