Heartland History

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 specifically the American Farm Bureau) served as the locus of science-based agriculture for rural communities. Drawing on community bonds and culturally powerful metaphors to overcome skepticism, bureaus played a critical role in circulating knowledge grounded in the new disciplines of agricultural economics, rural sociology, home economics, veterinary medicine, child science, and public health.

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 1820s through the 1850s. This is a book about conversations: in particular, the fights and negotiations over the core ideals in the constitutions that brought these frontier communities to life."

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 encompasses his deep Indiana roots and the prevailing influences of Midwestern life.

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), co-editing Unionizing the Jungles: Labor and Community in the Twentieth-Century Meatpacking Industry (University of Iowa Press, 1997)with Shelton Stromquist. and co editing The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa (University of Iowa Press, 2008)with David Hudson and Loren Horton.

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, “Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776," published in 2000, and his current research focuses on religion in the late 19th and early 20th century Manhattan. (photo courtesy of Yale University, Department of History)

National Register Historian Denis Gardner, Minnesota Historical Society. Denis discusses the importance of the National Register, historic preservation, and its role in state and local history initiatives. In addition to his work as National Register Historian, Denis has published a number of books including "Wood, Concrete, Stone, and Steel: Minnesota's Historic Bridges" and "Minnesota Treasures: Stories Behind the State's Historic Places."

David serves as the field services manager for the Minnesota Historical Society travelling nearly 35,000 miles a year to engage with, and assist, local historical societies, His recent publications include "Building Museums: a handbook for small and midsize organizations" and a history about Sarah Jane Sibly, the first Governor's Wife (modern First Lady) of Minnesota, "Six Miles from St. Paul: the family and society of Sarah Jane Sibley" reveals how Sarah led the first historic preservation effort in Minnesota, and was key to setting social patterns that endure. The story, meticulously researched and illustrated, is told through the observations of her by her family and friends.

Jenny Barker Devine discusses her book, "On Behalf of the Family Farm" which traces the development of women’s activism and agrarian feminisms in the Midwest after 1945, as farm women’s lives were being transformed by the realities of modern agriculture. She has won several prizes for her research, including the Zaffarano Prize for Graduate Student Research at Iowa State University (she was the first nonscientist to win it), the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women in Politics, the Phi Alpha Theta Doctoral Scholarship, and the Ernest G. Hildner, Jr., Faculty Award of Illinois College. She has also received research grants from the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Richard S. Brownlee Fund of the State Historical Society of Missouri, and the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Paul Stone Professor of History, University of Minnesota, Humphrey School of Public Affairs discusses regionalist impulses of the early 20th century. Dr. Stone's research focuses on American political and institutional history, behavior in American public life, and Minnesota political history.

Jon Lauck interviews Kevin Ehrman-Solberg, Web Developer and GIS Director for The Historyapolis Project, a collaborative endeavor that relies on the complementary skills of academic historians, community researchers, archivists, museum professionals, students and technologists. We work together to make history that matters in Minneapolis. Kevin interrogates the intersection of space and historical narrative. His work on pornography bookstores in Minneapolis was recently published in the Middle West Review, where he explores the connections between pornography, gay sexual liberation, feminism, and police power.

Dr. Bill Green discusses race and civil rights in Minnesota history. His recent book, A Peculiar Imbalance in Early Minnesota: 1837-1869, and Degrees of Freedom: The Origin of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865-1914, won the 2015 Minnesota Book Award-Hognander Prize.

Michael J. Lansing. Augsburg College,Associate Professor, History Department Chair discusses his research on the North American West, political history, environmental history, and gender history. His current project is The Cradle of Carbohydrates: Minneapolis and the Making of the World’s Food, an environmental and urban history of the city’s central role in the creation and propagation of carbohydrate-rich processed and packaged foods.His books include Insurgent Democracy: The Nonpartisan League in North American Politics (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and the co-authored The American West: A Concise History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).