Review

General Books

The editors of The American Midwest invited "historians who had published important monographs about subjects located in the Midwest" to write on topics concerning regional identity. The resulting chapters now deliver a harvest of recent scholarship and an informative review of traditional historiographical literature on the Midwest. A thorough introduction by the editors provides an overview of interpretations on regional identity origins and how the major movements of US history—immigration, Indian policy, the Civil War, race relations, economics, and politics—have shaped Midwestern thought, life, and culture. The introduction also explores the concept of regional identity resulting from the isolation of western settlement. Frontier settlers were on the margin of national political discourse as the issues of the early to mid nineteenth-century were defined. In summary the editors state: "Regionality was a cultural and political expression of peripheral status transformed into boasts of moral superiority and demands for a greater, territorially specific voice in national government" (p. 8). By providing a broad historical survey of the Midwest's beginnings, the editors have set the stage for the following ten chapters.	1
Each chapter elucidates a different perspective on the evolution of the Midwest while squashing a few frontier myths along the way. Providing original interpretations of the Midwest while expanding the boundaries of traditional historical inquiry, the essays render an articulate, informed synthesis of factors contributing to Midwestern self-awareness. Chapter One, "Seeing the Midwest with Peripheral Vision: Identities, Narratives, and Region," for example, includes an examination of the "rural narrative" (p. 32) as an inaccurate indicator of gender relations and pioneer settlement. The essay highlights changing historical and fictional perceptions of the Midwest while illustrating the dangers of accepting traditional interpretations that mask conflict and diversity at face value. Eight of the essays mention the writings of Frederick Jackson Turner thus underscoring the continuing effects of Jackson's contribution to frontier and Western historiography. Chapter Seven, "Stories Written in Blood: Race and Midwestern History," yields an intriguing comparison of Turner's writings on the frontier with a biographical account that, in author Susan Gray's words, "recasts Turner's story with the specificity of time and place" (p. 139).	2
Several authors grapple with the amorphous definition of "Midwestern." Like an oft-quoted Supreme Court justice, not all are able to precisely define this Midwesternness, but they know it when they see it. Contributing author and editor Andrew Cayton concedes this point in Chapter Eight, "The Anti-region: Place and Identity in the History of the American Midwest," and writes: "The Midwest...suffers from the lack of geographically defined borders and specific stereotypes. When it comes to definition, the Midwest is a mushy place; experts cannot even agree on where it begins and ends" (148). Historian R. Douglas Hurt supplies a succinct analysis in Chapter Nine, "Midwestern Distinctiveness," when he reminds us: "Because of the great cultural diversity of the region, perhaps the Midwest is less a region than a sense of place ... At the very least, the Midwest is what people say it is, that is, what they perceive it to be, and boundaries are important however they are defined or there would be no region" (p. 177).	3
The book is recommended for graduate students or senior-level undergraduates armed with a basic understanding of frontier development. The American Midwest should not be mistaken for a chronological or state by state regional history. Several of the contributions, as the editors admit, cover nineteenth-century topics with the majority of essays focusing on the Midwest as a whole. As a graduate-level seminar text, it should encourage discussion and further inquiry. Instructors of Midwestern studies or frontier history courses will find it useful as a source for additional readings. Instructors who find The American Midwest useful may also want to examine Heartland: Comparative Histories of the Midwestern States (Indiana University Press, 1988), Frontier and Region: Essays in Honor of Martin Ridge (University of New Mexico Press, 1997) and Midwestern Women: Work, Community, and Leadership at the Crossroads (Indiana University Press, 1997). In summary, The American Midwest is a laudable, provocative endeavor in defining the fundamental qualities of Midwestern identity and acquaints readers with interesting points of view on the historical development of distinctive regional traits.	4
Iowa Gold Star Museum, Camp Dodge Michael W. Vogt

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