"A history of the US Midwest in the nineteenth century, describing and analyzing a rich civic culture that prized education, literature, libraries, and the arts; developed a stable social order grounded in Victorian norms, republican virtue, and Christian teachings; was marred by overt racism but made significant progress toward racial equality; and generally put democratic ideals into practice further than any nation to date"--

Twenty-two recognized authors have contributed their thoughts on their Middle West.

"The Midwest has been characterized as an excellent seedbed for the germination of great thinkers, but a wasteland for their further growth. This collection reveals that representation to be false. More than just a springboard for the careers of future expatriates, the region has cultivated extraordinary intellectuals and allowed for the cross-pollination of a diversity of ideas. It has also been the site of shifting interpretations-to some a frontier,...