Jon K. Lauck Livres

Focusing on the often-overlooked significance of the Midwest, this book highlights its pivotal contributions to American history. It emphasizes the region's role in igniting the American Revolution, stabilizing the early republic through agriculture, and ensuring Union victory in the Civil War. Additionally, it explores how the Midwest extended democratic institutions, challenged the cultural hegemony of the East, and fostered a robust capitalist ethos through active land markets. This comprehensive examination aims to elevate the Midwest's historical importance and stimulate further scholarly interest.

Examines the values we like to think were at work during the founding of America's western states. Taking Dakota Territory as a laboratory for examining a formative stage of western politics, Jon Lauck finds that settlers from New England and the Midwest invoked democratic practices as guiding principles in the drive for South Dakota statehood.

At the centre of American history is a hole - a gap where some scholars' indifference or disdain has too long stood in for the true story of the American Midwest. A first-ever chronicle of the Midwest's formative century, The Good Country restores this American heartland to its central place in the nation's history.