In this Book
- The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia
- Book
- 2007
- Published by: Indiana University Press
- Series: Midwestern History and Culture
This first-ever encyclopedia of the Midwest seeks to embrace this large and diverse area, to give it voice, and help define its distinctive character. Organized by topic, it encourages readers to reflect upon the region as a whole. Each section moves from the general to the specific, covering broad themes in longer introductory essays, filling in the details in the shorter entries that follow. There are portraits of each of the region's twelve states, followed by entries on society and culture, community and social life, economy and technology, and public life. The book offers a wealth of information about the region's surprising ethnic diversity -- a vast array of foods, languages, styles, religions, and customs -- plus well-informed essays on the region's history, culture and values, and conflicts. A site of ideas and innovations, reforms and revivals, and social and physical extremes, the Midwest emerges as a place of great complexity, signal importance, and continual fascination.
Table of Contents
- Reader’s Guide
- pp. xiii-xiv
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- pp. xv-xviii
- General Overview
- pp. xix-xxiv
- Landscapes and People
- pp. 1-2
- Portraits of the Twelve States
- pp. 3-54
- Images of the Midwest
- pp. 55-125
- Society and Culture
- pp. 275-276
- Literature
- pp. 425-526
- Cultural Institutions
- pp. 613-702
- Sports and Recreation
- pp. 867-932
- Media and Entertainment
- pp. 958-988
- Community and Social Life
- pp. 989-990
- Rural Life
- pp. 991-1074
- Small-Town Life
- pp. 1075-1142
- Urban and Suburban Life
- pp. 1143-1246
- Economy and Technology
- pp. 1247-1248
- Labor Movements and Working-class Culture
- pp. 1249-1342
- Transportation
- pp. 1343-1442
- Science and Technology, Health and Medicine
- pp. 1443-1536
- Public Life
- pp. 1537-1538
- Constitutional and Legal Culture
- pp. 1539-1610
- Military Affairs
- pp. 1727-1806
- About the Editors
- pp. 1891-1892