Heartland History

Dr. Mark Soderstrom of SUNY Empire State College discusses his dissertation work on race, segregation, and housing at the University of Minnesota in the early 20th century, as well as an exhibit based on his research at the University of Minnesota's Elmer L. Andersen Library Atrium Gallery entitled "A Campus Divided: Progressives, Anti-Communists, Racism, and Anti-Semitism at the University of Min...

Tricia Oman, professor at Hastings College and director of Hastings College Press discusses growing up in the Midwest, discovering its literary heritage and prominence in the early 20th century, studying the growing cultural invisibility of Midwestern culture in latter half of the 20th century, the ways in which the Midwest has been defined popularly as “flyover country” by outsiders as to the reg...

Dr. Bethel Saler discusses her 2015 book "The Settler's Empire: Colonialism and State Formation in America's Old Northwest" published by University of Pennsylvania Press. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which officially recognized the United States as a sovereign republic, also doubled the territorial girth of the original thirteen colonies. The fledgling nation now stretched from the coast of Maine to...

Matthew E. Stanley's intimate study The Loyal West: Civil War and Reunion in Middle America (University of Illinois Press) explores the Civil War, Reconstruction, and sectional reunion in this bellwether region. Using the lives of area soldiers and officers as a lens, Stanley reveals a place and a strain of collective memory that was anti-rebel, anti-eastern, and anti-black in its attitudes--one t...

Dr. Bruce Bigelow is a Professor of History at Butler University. His interest in teaching centers on the historical cultural geography of the US, especially the Midwest. He also teaches courses on the Civil War, US Urban History, the American Empire since 1945, the American Midwest, and World History. He also teaches Cultural Geography: Regions of the World for the core curriculum. Bruce's public...

Greg Dowd is a past chair of the the Department of American Culture (AC) and a past director of the AC Native American Studies program. His scholarly interests include the study of rumor and the history of the North American Indian East during the colonial, revolutionary, and early national periods. He has taught history at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Connecticut, and the Unive...

From the 47th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature in East Lansing, Michigan. Dr. Jeffrey Swenson (Hiram College) presents his paper "Defending the Revolt from the Village: Reinforcing Sinclair Lewis in the Age of Trump." Dr. Marcia Noe (University of Tennessee Chattanooga), Jon Lauck, and the audience respond. Jeff Swenson's primary research focus is Midwestern Reg...

Matt Pehl, Assistant Professor of History at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dr. Pehl specializes in twentieth century U.S. history, which a special interest in religion, race, gender, and working-class history. His book, The Making of Working-Class Religion, was published in 2016 by the University of Illinois Press.

Dave Page discusses the life and writings F. Scott Fitzgerald, in addition to, his latest work, F.Scott Fitzgerald In Minnesota: The Writer & His Friends At Home, published by University of Minnesota Press.

Andrew Jewell is a Professor of Digital Projects at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries and the editor of the Willa Cather Archive. Andy has published several essays on Willa Cather and other American writers, scholarly editing, and digital humanities. He is co-editor of the book The American Literature Scholar in the Digital Age (University of Michigan Press, 2011) and has edited, with J...

An interview with Scott Atkinson Editor-in-Chief of Belt Magazine and writing instructor at The University of Michigan-Flint. Scott is an award-winning journalist who has written for several publications including The New York Times, Vice, and Writer's Digest. He is also the editor of Belt Magazine and in 2016 edited Happy Anyway: A Flint Anthology from Belt Publishing.

Jon Lauck discusses The 49th annual Dakota Conference on the Northern Plains with Dr. Harry Thompson, Executive director for The Center for Western Studies at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN THE NORTHERN PLAINS: OBSERVING THE 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REFORMATION The conference will be held April 21-22, 2017, in the CWS Fantle Building on the Augustana...

Patrick Kerin discusses his work as the President of the Greenhills Historical Society and "Buckeye Muse" his new blog which focuses on Ohio and Ohio Valley writers and and writing, past and present, and Ohio Valley literary culture, in addition to, sites of literary and historical significance in Ohio and the Ohio Valley.

Jonathan Kasparek, Associate Professor of History at University of Wisconsin, Waukesha discusses progressive politics in Wisconsin and his recent book, "Fighting Son: A Biography of Philip F. LaFollette," which traces La Follette's journey through public office, as well as, his life after the waning of the Progressive era.

An interview with Dr. Nancy Berlage, professor of History at Texas State University. Her research and teaching interests include public history, the American political culture, and rural culture. Dr. Berlage discusses her most recent work, Farmers Helping Farmers The Rise of the Farm and Home Bureaus was published by Louisiana State University Press in July 2016. Berlage explores how bureaus (more...

An in-depth interview with Dr. Christopher Phillips, Professor of History and Department Head, at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Phillips discusses his new book, "The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border" which underscores the regional consciousness during this divisive time period.

An interview with Dr. Philip Greasley, Professor of English at The University of Kentucky and editor for the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature (SSML). Dr. Greasley discusses the influence of Midwestern literature, the Chicago Renaissance, and his work on Dictionary of Midwestern Literature Vol. 2: Dimensions of the Midwestern Literary Imagination published in August of 2016.

An interview with Dr. Silvana R. Siddali Associate Professor, Eugene A. Hotfelder Professor of Humanities at St. Louis University. Dr. Siddali discusses her book, " Frontier Democracy: Constitutional Conventions in the Old Northwest" and her examination of "the debates over state constitutions in the antebellum Northwest (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) from the...

Dr. Michael D. Steiner, Emeritus Professor of American Studies at California State University- Fullerton discusses his recent work, Regionalist on the Left: Radical Voices from the American West, sense of place and space, cultural geography in relation to regionalism.

Dr. Larry Lockridge, Professor Emeritus of English at New York University, discusses his work, Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr., Author of Raintree County. While Raintree County is itself a highly developed historical novel about Indiana during the Civil War, Lockridge eloquently underscores the historical consciousness coursing through the Lockridge family, which e...

Adam Arenson, Professor of History at Manhattan College discusses his book- The Great Heart of the Republic St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War. Dr. Arenson illuminates how the American Civil War, expanded beyond military battles ultimately causing a cultural civil war among North, South, and West, as their leaders sought to shape Manifest Destiny and slavery politics.

An interview with Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, Steven Hahn. Dr. Hahn discusses his latest book, A Nation without Borders: The United States and Its World in an Age of Civil Wars, 1830-1910.

James Connolly Director, Center for Middletown Studies and George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of History, at Ball State University in Muncie Indiana, discusses his past and recent projects including his work on “What Middletown Read,” a study of print culture and urban life at the turn of the twentieth century, in collaboration with Frank Felsenstein.

Marvin Bergman discusses his work as Editor the Annals of Iowa, the State Historical Society of Iowa’s quarterly, scholarly history journal. Since 1987, Dr. Bergman has worked to make the best interpretive work on Iowa history accessible to the public by contributing his knowledge and talent to several other publications including the Iowa History Reader (University of Iowa Press edition, 2008), c...

Jon Butler, the Howard R. Lamar Professor Emeritus of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies at Yale University discusses his work and the importance of studying the history of the Midwest. His publications include “Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People,” which earned the American Historical Association’s Beveridge Award for the best book in American history in 1990...