Iowa History Reader

In 1978 historian Joseph Wall wrote that Iowa was "still seeking to assert its own identity. . . . It has no real center where the elite of either power, wealth, or culture may congregate. Iowa, in short, is middle America." In this collection of well-written and accessible essays, originally published in 1996, seventeen of the Hawkeye State's most accomplished historians reflect upon the dramatic and not-so-dramatic shifts in the middle land's history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Marvin Bergman has drawn upon his years of editing the Annals of Iowa to gather contributors who cross disciplines, model the craft of writing a historical essay, cover more than one significant topic, and above all interpret history rather than recite it. In his preface to this new printing, he calls attention to publications that begin to fill the gaps noted in the 1996 edition.

Rather than survey the basic facts, the essayists engage readers in the actual making of Iowa's history by trying to understand the meaning of its past. By providing comprehensive accounts of topics in Iowa history that embrace the broader historiographical issues in American history, such as the nature of Progressivism and Populism, the debate over whether women's expanded roles in wartime carried over to postwar periods, and the place of quantification in history, the essayists contribute substantially to debates at the national level at the same time that they interpret Iowa's distinctive culture.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587296349
• ISBN13: 9781587296345
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: University of Iowa Press
• Length: 470 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Bring this book back in print

I concur with Professor Kellogg. I am teaching Iowa History this spring (2006) and I have learned that the book is out of print. It is a shame, since it was such a great book to use with Dorthy Schwieder's Iowa: The Middle Land. Bergman's collection of stories,(some available in Annuals of Iowa) is a nice grouping of Iowa History. From early native americans, to the abortion battles in the 70s this is a very good telling of Iowa history through the writings of some of Iowa's best historians. Tom Gary

Iowa History Reader

This is a wonderful book to explore the various aspects of Iowa history. While the book doesn't concentrate on any one subject of Iowas' history it does give the reader a broad look at both local and statewide issues dealing with Native Americans to the Iowa Primaries. It is a well balanced even-handed account of Iowa and Iowans. What I fail to understand is why the book is currently out of print. Iowan history instructors and professors find this a valuable teaching tool and a good anthology of Iowa writers on Iowa issues.