Delve deep into the heart of the heartland and you will find a place with a history that makes national mythologies look small.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Having stared obsessively at a small, gray-tinged laptop screen long enough to exhaust several pairs of glasses, it is a tremendous pleasure to finally stand up, stretch, and recall that this book did, indeed, take me beyond the fluorescent confines of my office, into the ambits of many knowing, generous, and otherwise wonderful people. It is an even greater pleasure to acknowledge them here.
As a newcomer to Native American and U.S.-Mexican borderlands histories, I owe huge debts to those who shared their expertise in these fields: Lara Aase, Ned Blackhawk, Chris Boyer, Brian DeLay, Dave Edmunds, Andy Fisher, Amy Greenberg, Peter Guardino, José Angel Hernández, Joseph Herring, Benjamin Johnson, Bill Kemp, Greg Koos, Andrae Marak, Karen Marrero, J. Gabriel Martínez-Serna, George F. Perkins, Cynthia Radding, Andrés Reséndez, Michael J. Sherfy, Pamela Voekel, Elliot Young, Ernesto Isunza Vera, and participants in the 2006 Tepoztlán Institute. Howard Allen, a Kickapoo language teacher at the Kickapoo Nation School, deserves particular thanks for his correspondence and comments on my work. Fred Hoxie gave me key leads at the start, read a huge hunk of text in the middle, and kept me grounded near the end.
Generous colleagues continued to light the way as I ventured ever deeper into midwestern, rural, and agricultural history, so here’s to Benjamin R. Cohen, Nick Cullather, Chris Endy, Sterling Evans, Kory Gallagher, Prakash Kumar, Jon Lauck, Jeffrey Pilcher, Debra Ann Reid, Steven Topik, Jenifer Van Vleck, and Elliott West.
Nicole Phelps stands in a category by herself for her unparalleled expertise in the history of the U.S. consular service and her generous briefings.
Jeff Brawn, Marlis Douglas, Mike Douglas, Ed Heske, Tony Endress, Greg McIsaac, Kenneth R. Robertson, and Mike Ward kindly shared their knowledge of ecological change and natural history. Kurk Dorsey, Jerome Hoganson, and Tom Johnson also tutored me on birding basics.
Hosts and audiences for a number of talks provided crucial feedback. Special thanks are due to Jon Crane, Ramón A. Gutiérrez, and Geraldo Cadava, who weighed in at the Newberry Library borderlands workshop; Chainy Folsom, Kory Gallagher, and Dennis Merrill at the University of Missouri, Kansas City; Dan Bender, Elspeth Brown, Russell Kazal, and Susan Nance at the Centre for the Study of the United States at the University of Toronto; Brian DeLay, Daniel Immerwahr, Lynsay Skiba, and Erica Lee at the University of California, Berkeley; Gabriele Link at the University of Rostock; Christine Gerhardt at the University of Bamberg; Volker Depkat and Udo Hebel at the German Association for American Studies meeting held in Regensburg, Germany; Katharina Vester at the meeting of the Chesapeake chapter of the American Studies Association held at American University; Chandra Manning, Adam Rothman, and Zackary Gardner at Georgetown University; Brian Alberts and Will Gray at Purdue University; Anne Paulet at Humboldt State University; Dianne Harris at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities; Tyler Miller and Alison Orton at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle; Leslie Butler and Jeff Friedman at Dartmouth College; Alex Goodall at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London; Jacqueline Fear-Segal and Thomas Smith at the University of East Anglia; Sarah Miller Davenport and Phil Withington at Sheffield University; Bevan Sewell and Zoe Trodd at the University of Nottingham; Marc Palen at Exeter University; Halbert Jones and Alan Knight at the North American Studies Center at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford; Andrew Preston and Gary Gerstle at Cambridge University; Marina Moskowitz at the University of Glasgow; Shaul Mitelpunkt at York University; attendees at the Americans Overseas Conference organized by Steve Tuffnell at Oxford University; Amanda Waterhouse, Natasha Lueres, and Ruthann Miller at Indiana University; and Klaus Weinhauer, Stefan Rinke, and Angelika Epple at Bielefeld University.
And then there are the generous people who sent me cites and leads out of the blue and in response to queries: Nicolas Barreyre, Duncan Bell, Thomas Bottelier, Nancy Brown, Catherine Cocks, Max Paul Friedman, Christina Heatherton, Kelly J. Sisson Lessens, John Plotz, Donald Worster, Judy Wu, and Michelle Zacks. Mapmakers Jenny Marie Johnson and Tracy Smith helped me visualize my data.
For big-picture and game-changing help, inspiration, and encouragement, I owe profound debts to Frank Costigliola, Ann Hoganson, Edward Hoganson, Mary Renda, Daniel Rodgers, Emily Rosenberg, Claudia Tavera, and my hosts and colleagues at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität: Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson, Anke Ortlepp, and Christof Mauch.
For what will forever stand out as a year of wonder at Oxford, I would like to thank Provost Anthony Madden and the governing body of the Queen’s College, IT specialist and aerial descent informant David Olds, and Elaine Evers. At the Rothermere American Institute, Jay Sexton, Gareth Davies, Pekka Hämäläinen, Mara Keire, Michèle Mendelssohn, Lisa Miller, Stephen Tuck, and Stephen Tuffnell honed my thoughts. Vyvyan and Alexandra Harmsworth shared, among other things, their expertise in country life and Berkshire pigs.
Among the librarians and archivists to whom I am deeply indebted are Sara Rachel Benson, Susan Braxton, Erik Chapman, Adam Doskey, Kirk Hess, John Hoffman, Jenny Marie Johnson, Angela Jordan, Philippa Levine, Mary Mallory, Geoffrey Thomas Ross, Celestina Savonius-Wroth, Antonio Sotomayor, Mary Stuart, and Elizabeth Wohlgemuth of the University of Illinois library system and Prairie Research Institute; Anke Voss of the Champaign County Historical Archives at the Urbana Free Library; Karen Downing and Gabriella Hoskin of the Institute for Advanced Study Library; Bill Kemp, Greg Koos, and George F. Perkins of the McLean County Museum of History and its associated archives; Liz Allsopp of the Rothamsted Research Library; Isabel D. Holowaty at the Bodleian Library; Jane Rawson of the Vere Harmsworth Library; and the hard-worked staff of the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C., and College Park, Maryland.
All of the students I have had the privilege of working with have shaped this book in some way, but I would like to note in particular those whose research interests have been closest: David Lehman, Zach Poppel, and Andrew Siebert. Michael Hughes sent back leads from London, Sandra Henderson did valiant legwork during an effort to go digital, Ethan Johnson located newspaper articles on Rantoul, and Megan White pursued some cold leads and permissions.
I am grateful to the University of Illinois for providing me with an academic home and nurturing my scholarship since my days as a fledgling professor. Space permitting, I would list every colleague I’ve had there over the years, but for brevity I’ll note particular debts to Ikuko Asaka, Jim Barrett, Tom Bedwell, Antoinette Burton, Julie Cidell, Jerry Dávila, Dianne Harris, Fred Hoxie, John A. Lynn, Gigi MacIntosh, Erik McDuffie, Bob Morrissey, Kevin Mumford, Elizabeth Pleck, and Roberta Price. The late Don Crummey helped launch this book in an expedition to Paxton and Loda to look at pioneer graveyards. Leslie Reagan deserves particular thanks for years of listening, critical analysis, and understanding.
I am also profoundly grateful for financial support from the University of Illinois Campus Research Board and Scholars’ Travel Fund, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Richard and Margaret Romano Professorial Scholarship, and the University of Illinois sabbatical leave program. In the protoplasmic stages of this book, I benefited tremendously from the Illinois Faculty Study in a Second Discipline initiative and a Fulbright fellowship.
Jill Lepore made this book what it is by issuing an invitation, permit, and title. One of the greatest immodesties of my professional life is the pride I take in making her list of worthwhile authors.
At Penguin Press, Kiara Barrow and Mia Council worked marvels as editors. Beena Kamlani, Laurie McGee, and Will Palmer deserve eagle eye awards for their careful readings. Scott Moyers, there at the start, stuck with me to the end.
Finally, I’d like to thank those closest to home: my mom for encouraging me to write what I wanted; my dad for encouraging me to do what I wanted; Charles, for helping me realize what both these things were;
and my three heartland seedlings, now tall as full-grown compass plants, for taking me to places I never would have discovered on my own.
NOTES
Some of the publications cited in these notes were located via digital collections, as follows:
America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex
Dallas Morning News, Yankton Press
British Periodicals, ProQuest
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Chamber’s Journal, Manchester Guardian, The Gentleman’s Magazine, The English Illustrated Magazine
Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Berkshire World and Cornbelt Stockman, Bureau County Tribune, Chicago Livestock World, Daily Illini, Illinois Farmer, Prairie Farmer, Rock Island Argus, Urbana Daily Courier
Nineteenth Century U.K. Periodicals, Gale Cengage Learning
The Academy, The Age, The Australasian, Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, The Country Gentleman, The Illustrated Household Journal and Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, John Bull
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Gale Cengage Learning
Arizona Miner, Arkansas State Democrat, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison Champion, Bismarck Daily Tribune, Boston Courier, Boston Daily Advertiser, Boston Daily Atlas, Cleveland Herald, Daily Evening Bulletin, Emporia Gazette, Freedom’s Champion, Galveston Daily News, Hawaiian Gazette, Inter Ocean, Kansas Herald of Freedom, Louisville Public Advertiser, Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinel, New-York Spectator, North American and United States Gazette, Ohio Statesman, Oregonian, Rocky Mountain News, St. Louis Enquirer, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, United States’ Telegraph
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Chicago Tribune
U.K. Parliamentary Papers Online, ProQuest.
World Newspaper Archive, Readex
El Siglo Diez y Nueve, Franklin Herald, Mexican Herald
Introduction: What Is the Nation, at Heart?
1. Emily Badger and Kevin Quealy, “Where Is America’s Heartland? Pick Your Map,” New York Times, Jan. 3, 2017.
2. On midwesterners as uniquely isolated, see Richard C. Longworth, Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism (New York: Bloomsbury, 2008), 23.
3. Longworth, Caught in the Middle; Anthony Harkins, “The Midwest and the Evolution of ‘Flyover Country,’” Middle West Review 3 (Fall 2016): 97–121.
4. This can be seen in claims that Donald Trump had a 7.5-million-vote margin in the heartland—a claim made by excluding every county, including those in states such as Indiana and Kansas, that voted against him. Philip Bump, “Thanks to a Bad Map and Bizarre Math, Breitbart Can Report That Trump Won the REAL Popular Vote,” Washington Post, Nov. 15, 2016.
5. W. H. Parker, Mackinder: Geography as an Aid to Statecraft (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), 34, 54; Gerry Kearns, Geopolitics and Empire: The Legacy of Halford Mackinder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 4–5, 16.
6. “Fleet of ‘Forts’ Pound Germans Thru 48th Hour,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1943.
7. “Traces Outline Regarding Russian Post-War Grab,” Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1949; Frank Tobias Higbie, “Heartland: The Politics of a Regional Signifier,” Middle West Review (Fall 2014): 81–90.
8. On “middlewest,” see Will Davidson, “Mark Twain’s Real Stature,” Chicago Tribune, July 21, 1946; on “midlands,” see Frederic Babcock, “Among the Authors,” Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1947.
9. Lloyd Norman, “President Off to Woo Labor Aid in the Midwest,” Chicago Tribune, Sept. 6, 1948.
10. Frederic Babcock, “Among the Authors,” Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1947; John Abbot Clark, “Fine History of Midwest’s Political Wars,” Chicago Tribune, June 10, 1951; Clayton Kirkpatrick, “Tribune’s Flying Office Spans Pulsing Heart of U.S.,” Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2, 1954.
11. James Bryce, Social Institutions of the United States (New York: Chautauqua Press, 1891), 248; Andrew R. L. Cayton and Susan E. Gray, “The Story of the Midwest: An Introduction,” in The American Midwest: Essays on Regional History, ed. Andrew R. L. Cayton and Susan E. Gray (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 1–26; Andrew R. L. Cayton and Peter S. Onuf, The Midwest and the Nation: Rethinking the History of an American Region (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 122.
12. For examples of more analytical local histories, see John Demos, A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970); Kenneth A. Lockridge, A New England Town: The First Hundred Years, expanded ed. (1970; New York: W. W. Norton: 1985); Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974); Mary P. Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1790–1865, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); Darrett B. Rutman and Anita H. Rutman, A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia, 1650–1750 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984); Robert Anthony Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880–1950 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985); John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986).
13. Jean M. O’Brien, Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010).
14. Joseph A. Amato, “Introduction: The Concept and the Practitioners of Local History,” in Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History, ed. Joseph A. Amato (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 1–16.
15. Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 181. On parochialism, Amato, “Introduction: The Concept and the Practitioners of Local History,” 5. On xenophobia, see Karen Ordahl Kupperman, “International at the Creation: Early Modern American History,” in Rethinking American History in a Global Age, ed. Thomas Bender (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 109. On faulting local history as anecdotal, inoffensive, and dull, see Geoffrey Elan, “How to Write a Dull Town History,” in The Pursuit of Local History: Readings on Theory and Practice, ed. Carol Kammen (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1996), 209–11.
16. For some exemplary histories that break ground by looking outward, see Donald R. Wright, The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia, 2nd ed. (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004); Catherine Lutz, Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001); Leon Fink, The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003); James L. Peacock, Harry L. Watson, and Carrie R. Matthews, eds., The American South in a Global World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005); Andrew Friedman, Covert Capital: Landscapes of Denial and the Making of U.S. Empire in the Suburbs of Northern Virginia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013); Catherine Cangany, Frontier Seaport: Detroit’s Transformation into an Atlantic Entrepôt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014); Emma Rothschild, “Isolation and Economic Life in Eighteenth-Century France,” American Historical Review 119 (Oct. 2014): 1055–82.
17. Doreen Massey, “‘A Global Sense of Place,’” Exploring Human Geography: A Reader, ed. Stephen Daniels and Roger Lee (London: Arnold, 1996), 237–45.
18. Thomas Bender, “Introduction: Historians, the Nation and the Plenitude of Narratives,” in Rethinking American History in a Global Age, ed. Thomas Bender (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 1–22.
19. See, for example, Faranak Miraftab, Global Heartland: Displaced Labor, Transnational Lives and Local Placemaking (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016).
20. John Gjerde, The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997); Dana Elizabeth Weiner, Race and Rights: Fighting Slavery and Prejudice in the Old N
orthwest, 1830–1870 (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2013), 41.
21. On toenails, Milton W. Mathews and Lewis A. McLean, Early History and Pioneers of Champaign County (Urbana: Champaign County Herald, 1886), 60. J. L. Anderson, “Uneasy Dependency: Rural and Farm Policy and the Midwest since 1945,” in The Rural Midwest since World War II, ed. J. L. Anderson (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014), 126–59.
22. E. Davenport, “What Shall He Do?,” The Illinois Agriculturist 1 (1897): 61–68, 65. Timothy R. Mahoney, Provincial Lives: Middle-Class Experience in the Antebellum Middle West (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
23. Faragher, Sugar Creek, 89; Robert Mazrim, The Sangamo Frontier: History and Archaeology in the Shadow of Lincoln (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 28, 224. On the desire for market connections, David Blanke, Sowing the American Dream: How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural Midwest (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000), 21.
24. James E. Davis, Frontier Illinois (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 105; Faragher, Sugar Creek, 101; Jane Adams, The Transformation of Rural Life: Southern Illinois, 1890–1990 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 90–96.
25. J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (New York: HarperCollins, 2016).
26. Longworth, Caught in the Middle, 23, 98; on population loss, J. L. Anderson, introduction to The Rural Midwest Since World War II, ed. J. L. Anderson (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014), 3–11; on the farm crisis that swept across the Great Plains in the 1980s, sparked by a grain embargo against Russia, see Paula vW. Dáil, Hard Living in America’s Heartland: Rural Poverty in the 21st Century Midwest (Jefferson, NC: MacFarland and Company, 2015), 3.
27. Cayton and Gray, “The Story of the Midwest: An Introduction,” 1–26.
The Heartland Page 31