Hello and welcome to H-Midwest, H-Net's home for Midwestern Studies. H-Midwest spans all approaches to Midwestern Studies--sociology, literature, history, economics, cultural studies, law, arts--and questions in the broader field of regional studies as well. We will interrogate where, what, and who is "Midwestern," and why. Our aim is to explore the expanding contours of this growing field, and push them where needed. The H-Midwest Board creates features and resources for the field and welcomes your announcements, posts, queries, discussions, CFP's and all things Midwestern.
Take a look around. H-Midwest Roundtables, discussions, and announcements are below. The images of states above will take you to content relevent to each state. We also post CFP's in Midwestern Studies and reviews of books concerning the Midwest published by H-Net. H-Midwest's Book Review Editor is currently commissioning new reviews. If you have something to post and don't see a space for it, don't worry: if it's about the Midwest, we'll make a space for it.
If you'd like to get to get involved as a contributor, editor, blogger, or have suggestions for H-Midwest, please contact us at editorial-midwest@mail.h-net.msu.edu.
Follow us on Twitter at @h_midwest
Call for Chapter Proposals: “The Northern Midwest and the US-Canadian Borderlands: Essays on a Forgotten Region”
Call for Chapter Proposals:
“The Northern Midwest and the US-Canadian Borderlands: Essays on a Forgotten Region”
All proposals should be sent to jlauck1941@hotmail.com
The Black Midwest Initiative is excited to announce the launch of our new site.
Please visit us at the following link: https://www.theblackmidwest.com/.
The Wisconsin Historical Society is pleased to announce that 23 historic newspaper titles from Ashland, Baraboo, Edgerton, Hurley, La Crosse, Ladysmith, Madison, Milwaukee, Viroqua, Wabeno, Washburn, Wausau, and Wauwatosa will be added to the Library of Congress database Chronicling America.
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.
State Historical Society of Iowa
2018/2019 Research Grants
Please join us in the Senate Chamber at Old Capitol at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 15, 2018, to hear a lecture on the History of Photography in Iowa, showcasing many images from the collections of the State Historical Society of Iowa.
Old Capitol Museum, in conjunction with the Department of History and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will host a lecture by CLAS Alumni Fellow Mary Bennett (BA '76, MA ’85, History), Special Collections Coordinator at the State Historical Society of Iowa—Iowa City.
TOC, Ohio History, Spring, 2018
"By Compass, Chain, and Level: Early Efforts at Surveying and Mapping the Mounds," by Terry A. Barnhart
"From Social Grace to Social Power: Gender Norms in Leadership and Rhetorical Performance at Western College for Women," by Renea Frey and Jacqueline Johnson
"City, Legacy, and Reform: The Beginnings of the Toledo Humane Society," by Arjun Sabharwal
"Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh Experience in Martin's Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio, 1900-1940." by Robert Llewellyn Tyler
In case you're reading H-Midwest but you're not, for some reason, following us on Twitter, you are missing a great conversation on how the Midwest is studied and representated. It begins with a new book that seems to treat the Midwest as America's Heart of Darkness and ends (currently) with a video preview of a soon to be released documentary about the Midwest. The documentary seems to take a more enlightened view.
Your network editor has reposted this from The H-Net Book Channel. The byline reflects the original authorship.
Over on the @H_Midwest Twitter feed, Sean Rost sends a few book suggestions in response. Maybe some scholars there to start a search with?
Recent events have taught me that I don't know nearly enough about the history of hate groups in Ohio. Ohio has a disproportionate number of hate groups here, according to statistics collected by the Southern Poverty Law Council, claiming 35 of the nation's 917 hate groups, including one of the largest, Southern Ohio Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and the White Nationalist website the Daily Stormer. I'm hoping to enlist an author researching this topic and ultimately produce an accessible book about the subject for our Trillium regional imprint.
May is Minnesota Museums Month, and May 18 is International Museum Day. H-Midwest participates in this celebration of the preservation and presentation of the state's culture with the initiation of a new blog, Museums of Minnesota. Throughout the month, directors, curators, other staffers, and volunteers at museums and historical societies around the state will be posting about their work, artifacts in their collections, exhibits, and the rich resources they house.
Earlier today, H-Midwest Board member Jon Lauck appeared on "Central Standard" on KCUR in Kansas City to discuss the topic "What is the Midwest?" It was a fun and informative half hour on our favorite subject. A lot of interesting (and some surprising) definitions of Midwest came up, and quite a bit of sterotype bunking was heard.
The latest chapter in the saga of the Indiana State Archives is playing out in the halls of power in Indianapolis. How the story ends is not yet known.
Wilbur Zelinsky wrote about Oklahoma in his book Cultural Geography of the United States. He categorized the state as one of three US regions of “uncertain status or affiliation.” (The other two were Texas and peninsula Florida.)
Zelinsky more or less said Oklahoma was divided culturally and geographically east and west. The eastern half of Oklahoma bordering Arkansas used to grow cotton and was like the South, but the western half is more like the Great Plains.
Given Oklahoma's Native American history and energy industry, I always thought of the state in the larger context of the West. If anything, it does raise (or repeat) a larger question regarding the study of American regionalism: to what extent can regions be defined by state boundaries? It's certainly convenient but, as works like Fischer's Albion's Seed or Woodward's American Nations show, things are not always so clearly defined.
