Bibliography of Midwestern history

Overviews

• Cayton, Andrew R. L. Midwest and the Nation
• Cayton, Andrew R. L. and Susan E. Gray, eds. The Identity of the American Midwest: Essays on Regional History.
• Cayton, Andrew R. L. and Peter S. Onuf, eds. The American Midwest: Rethinking the History of an American Nation
• Good, David F. "American History through a Midwestern Lens." Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 38.2 : 435+ ; emphasis on economic history
• Hurt, R. Douglas. The Big Empty: The Great Plains in the Twentieth Century 315 pages; the environmental, social, economic, and political history of the region.
• Lauck, Jon K. "Why the Midwest Matters." The Midwest Quarterly 54.2 : 165+
• Nordin, Dennis S., and Roy V. Scott. From Prairie Farmer to Entrepreneur: The Transformation of Midwestern Agriculture. 356pp.
• Sisson, Richard, Christian Zacher, and Andrew Cayton, eds. The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, 1916 pp of articles by scholars on all topics covering the 12 states
• Walker, Kenneth R. A History of the Middle West From the Beginning to 1970 552pp the only textbook
• Wertenbaker, Thomas J. "The Molding of the Middle West." American Historical Review : 223-234.
• Wishart, David J. ed. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, University of Nebraska Press, 2004,.

  Historiography

• Billington, Ray Allen. "From Association to Organization: The OAH in the Bad Old Days." Journal of American History : 75-84.
• Brown, David S. Beyond the Frontier: The Midwestern Voice in American Historical Writing
• Buck, Solon J. "The Progress and Possibilities of Mississippi Valley History," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 10#1 pp. 5–20
• Clark, Thomas D. "Our Roots Flourished in the Valley." Journal of American History : 85-107.
• Howard, Joseph Kinsey. "New Concepts of Plains History." Montana Magazine of History : 16-23.
• Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. The Organization of American Historians and the Writing and Teaching of American History
• Lauck, Jon K. "The Prairie Historians and the Foundations of Midwestern History." Annals of Iowa 71#2 pp: 137-173.
• Lauck, Jon K. The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History 166 pages; criticizes the neglect of the Midwest in contemporary historiography and argues for a revival of attention
• Madison, James H., ed. Heartland: Comparative Histories of the Midwestern States
• Ross, Earle D. "A Generation of Prairie Historiography." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 33#3 pp: 391-410.
• Tyrrell, Ian. "Public at the Creation: Place, Memory, and Historical Practice in the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, 1907-1950," Journal of American History 94#1 pp. 19–46

  Before 1783

• Fisher, James. "A Forgotten Hero Remembered, Revered, and Revised: The Legacy and Ordeal of George Rogers Clark." Indiana Magazine of History : 109-132.
• Pauketat, Timothy R. Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi
• White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes region, 1650-1815

  Frontier Era: 1783-1850

• Barnhart, John D. Valley of Democracy: The Frontier versus the Plantation in the Ohio Valley, 1775-1818
• Billington, Ray Allen, and Martin Ridge. Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier ; 892 pp; textbook with 160pp of detailed annotated bibliographies
• Buley, R. Carlyle. The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period 1815–1840 2 vol, Pulitzer Prize
• Etcheson, Nicole. Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
• Lamar, Howard, ed. The New Encyclopedia of the American West ; this is a revised version of Reader's Encyclopedia of the American West ed. by Howard Lamar
• Larson, John Lauritz. "Teaching the West in the Early American Republic: Old Chestnuts and the Fruits of New Research." Magazine of History : 17-20. , historiography
• Rodriguez, Junius P. ed. The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia
• Scheiber, Harry N. ed. The Old Northwest; studies in regional history, 1787-1910 16 essays by scholars on economic and social topics
• Smelser, Marshall. "Tecumseh, Harrison, and the War of 1812," Indiana Magazine of History 65#1 pp 25-44
• Watts, Edward, and David Rachels, eds. The First West: Writing from the American Frontier, 1776-1860, 960pp; primary sources
• Wyman, Mark. The Wisconsin Frontier

  Civil War & Gilded Age

• Barker, Brett, et al. eds. Union Heartland: The Midwestern Home Front During the Civil War.
• Gjerde, John. Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917
• Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896
• Jordan, Philip D.Ohio Comes of Age: 1873-1900 Volume 5
• Kleppner, Paul. Cross of Culture
• Nye, Russel B. Midwestern Progressive Politics
• Scheiber, Harry N. ed. The Old Northwest; studies in regional history, 1787-1910 16 essays by scholars on economic and social topics
• Thornbrough, Emma Lou. Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850-1880 ; the standard scholarly history

  1900 to 1940

• Billington, Ray Allen. "The Origins of Middle Western Isolationism," Political Science Quarterly 60#1, 45-64.
• Bonnifield, Paul. The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression,
• Shannon, Fred A. "The Status of the Midwestern Farmer in 1900" The Mississippi Valley Historical Review., 37#3 pp: 491–510.

  1940 to present

• Hurt, R. Douglas. The Great Plains during World War II.. Pp. 507pp.
• Wuthnow, Robert. Remaking the Heartland: Middle America since the 1950s comprehensive survey

  Culture

• Hutton, Graham. Midwest at Noon, analysis of regional culture
• Rees, Amanda. The Great Plains Region: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures ; architecture, art, fashion, folklore, food, language, literature, music, religion, and sports
• Shortridge, James R. The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture
• Slade, Joseph W. and Judith Lee. The Midwest: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures ; architecture, art, fashion, folklore, food, language, literature, music, religion, and sports

  Economics

Agriculture

• Atack, Jeremy and Fred Bateman. To Their Own Soil: Agriculture in the Antebellum North * Grant, Michael Johnston. Down and Out on the Family Farm: Rural Rehabilitation in the Great Plains, 1929-1945,
• Hart, John Fraser. "Change in the corn belt." Geographical Review pp: 51-72.
• Jones, Robert Leslie. History of Agriculture in Ohio to 1880
• Jones, Robert Leslie. "The Horse and Mule Industry in Ohio to 1865." Mississippi Valley Historical Review : 61-88.
• Page, Brian and Richard Walker. "From Settlement to Fordism: The Agro-Industrial Revolution in the American Midwest," Economic Geography 67#4, 281-315.
• Shannon, Fred A. "The Status of the Midwestern Farmer in 1900" Mississippi Valley Historical Review 27#3 pp: 491–510.

  Industry

• High, Stephen C. Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt, 1969-1984
• Longworth, Richard C. Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism
• Meyer, David R. "Midwestern Industrialization and the American Manufacturing Belt in the Nineteenth Century", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 49, No. 4 pp. 921–937.
• Page, Brian and Richard Walker. "From Settlement to Fordism: The Agro-Industrial Revolution in the American Midwest," Economic Geography 67#4, 281-315.

  Labor

• Boryczka, Raymond, and Lorin Lee Cary. No Strength Without Union: An Illustrated History of Ohio Workers, 1803-1980 Ohio Historical Society, 1982.
• Critchlow, Donald. Socialism in the Heartland: The Midwestern Experience, 1900-1925. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.
• Feurer, Rosemary. Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
• Higbie, Frank Tobias. Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880-1930..
• Margo, Robert A. "Regional Wage Gaps and the Settlement of the Midwest." Explorations in Economic History 36#2 pp: 128-143.
• Nelson, Daniel. Farm and Factory: Workers in the Midwest 1880-1990.
• Neth, Mary. "Gender and the Family Labor System: Defining Work in the Rural Midwest." Journal of Social History : 563-577.
• Schob, David E. Hired Hands and Plowboys: Farm labor in the Midwest, 1815-60..
• Warren, Wilson J. Struggling with Iowa's Pride: Labor Relations, Unionism, and Politics in the Rural Midwest Since 1877.

  Railroads and transportation

• Atack, Jeremy, et al. "Did railroads induce or follow economic growth? Urbanization and Population Growth in the American Midwest, 1850–1860." Social Science History 34.2 : 171-197.
• Campbell, Ballard. "The Good Roads Movement in Wisconsin, 1890-1911," Wisconsin Magazine of History 49 : 273-93
• Kane, Adam I. The Western River Steamboat
• Larson, John Lauritz. Bonds of enterprise: John Murray Forbes and western development in America's railway age.
• Mercer, Lloyd J. "Land Grants to American Railroads: Social Cost or Social Benefit?" Business History Review 43#2 pp 134-151
• Meyer, Balthasar Henry, and Caroline Elizabeth MacGill. History of Transportation in the United States before 1860.
• White, Richard. Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America

  Geography, land and environment

• Blouet, Brian W. and Frederick C. Luebke, eds. The Great Plains: Environment and Culture
• Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, 1850–1900
• Garland, John H. The North American Midwest: A Regional Geography
• Hart, John Fraser. "The Middle West." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 62#2 pp: 258-282. in JSTOR
• Rohrbough, Malcolm J. The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789-1837
• Van Atta, John R. Securing the West: Politics, Public Lands, and the Fate of the Old Republic, 1785--1850

  Politics

• Buck, Solon J. The Granger Movement: A Study of Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic and Social Manifestations, 1870-1880
• Fenton, James H. Midwest politics, voting patterns by state
• Pearce, Neal R. The Great Plains States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Nine Great Plains States ; in-depth coverage of politics and economy
• Pearce, Neal R. The Great Lakes States of America: People, politics, and power in the Five Great Lakes States ; in-depth coverage of politics and economy

  Social history

Education

• Fuller, Wayne. The Old Country School: The Story of Rural Education in the Middle West.
• Mattingly, Paul H. and Edward W. Stevens Jr. Schools and the Means of Education Shall Forever Be Encouraged: A History of Education in the Old Northwest, 1787-1880, 132pp
• Theobald, Paul. Call School: Rural Education in the Midwest to 1918
• Wheeler, Kenneth H. Cultivating Regionalism: Higher Education and the Making of the American Midwest

  Race

• Lehman, Christopher P. Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865
• Thornbrough, Emma Lou. Negro in Indiana before 1900 : a study of a minority 1993
• Thornbrough, Emma Lou. Indiana Blacks in the twentieth century

  Religion

• Barlow, Philip, and Mark Silk, eds. Religion and public life in the Midwest: America's common denominator?
• Bodensieck, Julius, ed. The encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church
• Brauer, James Leonard and Fred L. Precht, eds. Lutheran Worship: History and Practice
• Gjerde, Jon. The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural evolution in the rural Middle West, 1830-1917
• Granquist, Mark. Lutherans in America: A New History
• Madison, James H. "Reformers and the Rural Church, 1900-1950," Journal of American History 73 : 645-68.
• Meyer, Carl S. Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
• Sweet, W.W. ed. Religion on the American Frontier, primary sources; lengthy volumes on Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians

  Rural

• Barron, Hal S. Mixed Harvest: the Second Great Transformation in the Rural North, 1870-1930.
• Douglas, Lake. "'To Improve the Soil and the Mind': Content and Context of Nineteenth-Century Agricultural Literature." Landscape Journal 25.1 : 67-79.
• Fry, John. “Good Farming – Clear Thinking – Right Living”: Midwestern Farm Newspapers, Social Reform, and Rural Readers in the Early Twentieth Century.” Agricultural History 78#1 : 34-49.
• Motz, Marilyn Ferris. "Folk Expression of Time and Place: 19th-Century Midwestern Rural Diaries." Journal of American Folklore 100#396 : 131-147.
• Neth, Mary. Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community, and the Foundations of Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1945.
• Reynolds, David R. There goes the neighborhood: Rural school consolidation at the grass roots in early twentieth-century Iowa.
• Riney-Kehrberg, Pamela. Childhood on the Farm: Work, Play, and Coming of Age in the Midwest.
• Riney-Kehrberg, Pamela. “Farm Youth and Progressive Agricultural Reform: Dexter D. Mayne and the Farm Boy Cavaliers of America.” Agricultural History 85#4 437-459.
• Weber, Margaret. "Making the best better: 4-H and rural anxiety in the early twentieth century." .

  Settlement and ethnicity

• Aponte, Robert, and Marcelo Siles Cabrera. "Latinos in the heartland: The browning of the Midwest"
• Gjerde, Jon. The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural evolution in the rural Middle West, 1830-1917
• Hudson, John C. "North American Origins of Middlewestern Frontier Populations," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 78#3 pp: 395-413.
• Mathews, Lois Kimbell. The Expansion of New England: The Spread of New England Settlement and Institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620- 1865
• Power, Richard Lyle. Planting Corn Belt Culture: The Impress of the Upland Southerner and Yankee in the Old Northwest.

  Urban

• Bodenhamer, David, ed. The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis
• Muller, Edward K. "Selective urban growth in the Middle Ohio Valley, 1800-1860." Geographical Review : 178-199. ; also
• Reiff, Janice L., Ann Durkin Keating, and James R. Grossman, eds. The Encyclopedia of Chicago
• Teaford, Jon C. Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest
• Van Tassell, David, and John J Grabowski, eds. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

  Women

• Aley, Ginette. "'Knotted Together Like Roots in the Darkness': Rural Midwestern Women and Region-A Bibliographic Guide." Agricultural history 77#3 pp: 453-481.
• Aley, Ginette. "A Republic of Farm People: Women, Families, and Market-Minded Agrarianism in Ohio, 1820s–1830s." Ohio History 114#1 pp: 28-45.
• Gabin, Nancy. "Fallow Yet Fertile: The Field of Indiana Women's History." Indiana Magazine of History
• Jensen, Joan M. Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1850-1925.
• Johnson, Yvonne, ed. Feminist Frontiers: Women who Shaped the Midwest
• Murphy, Lucy Eldersveld, and Wendy Hamand Venet, eds. Midwestern Women: Work, Community, and Leadership at the Crossroads,
• Neth, Mary. Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community, and the Foundations of Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1945.
• Riley, Glenda. The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women on the Prairie and the Plains
• Schlissel, Lillian. Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey
• Stuhler, Barbara, and Gretchen V. Kreuter, eds. Women of Minnesota: Selected Biographical Essays , 16 essays by experts covering numerous women

  Primary sources

• Frederick, John T., ed. Out of the Midwest: A Collection of Present-Day Writing 428pp; long literary excerpts
• Watts, Edward, and David Rachels, eds. The First West: Writing from the American Frontier, 1776-1860, 960pp; primary sources , long excerpts from 59 authors, chiefly Midwesterners