The following works deal with the cultural, political, economic, military, biographical and geologic history of the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

Overviews

* Cayton, Andrew R. L. ''Midwest and the Nation'' (1990) * Cayton, Andrew R. L. and Susan E. Gray, eds. ''The Identity of the American Midwest: Essays on Regional History.'' (2001) * Cayton, Andrew R. L. and Peter S. Onuf, eds. ''The American Midwest: Rethinking the History of an American Nation'' (1990) * Good, David F. "American History through a Midwestern Lens." ''Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft'' 38.2 (2012): 435
online
emphasis on economic history * Hurt, R. Douglas. '' The Big Empty: The Great Plains in the Twentieth Century'' (University of Arizona Press; 2011) 315 pages; the environmental, social, economic, and political history of the region. * Lauck, Jon K. "Why the Midwest Matters." ''The Midwest Quarterly'' 54.2 (2013): 165+ * Nordin, Dennis S., and Roy V. Scott. ''From Prairie Farmer to Entrepreneur: The Transformation of Midwestern Agriculture.'' (2005) 356pp. * Sisson, Richard, Christian Zacher, and Andrew Cayton, eds. ''The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia'' (Indiana University Press, 2006), 1916 pp of articles by scholars on all topics covering the 12 states * Walker, Kenneth R. ''A History of the Middle West From the Beginning to 1970'' (1972) 552pp the only textbook * Wertenbaker, Thomas J. "The Molding of the Middle West." ''American Historical Review'' (1948): 223-234
in JSTOR
* Wishart, David J. ed. ''Encyclopedia of the Great Plains'', University of Nebraska Press, 2004,
complete text online

Historiography

* Billington, Ray Allen. "From Association to Organization: The OAH in the Bad Old Days." ''Journal of American History'' (1978): 75-84
in JSTOR
* Brown, David S. ''Beyond the Frontier: The Midwestern Voice in American Historical Writing'' (2009) * Buck, Solon J. "The Progress and Possibilities of Mississippi Valley History," ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' (1923) 10#1 pp. 5–2
in JSTOR
* Clark, Thomas D. "Our Roots Flourished in the Valley." ''Journal of American History'' (1978): 85-107
in JSTOR
* Howard, Joseph Kinsey. "New Concepts of Plains History." ''Montana Magazine of History'' (1952): 16-23
in JSTOR
* Kirkendall, Richard S., ed. ''The Organization of American Historians and the Writing and Teaching of American History'' (Oxford University Press, 2011) * Lauck, Jon K. "The Prairie Historians and the Foundations of Midwestern History." ''Annals of Iowa'' (2012) 71#2 pp: 137-173. * Lauck, Jon K. ''The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History'' (University of Iowa Press; 2013) 166 pages; criticizes the neglect of the Midwest in contemporary historiography and argues for a revival of attentio
excerpt
* Madison, James H., ed. ''Heartland: Comparative Histories of the Midwestern States'' (Indiana UP, 1988) * Ross, Earle D. "A Generation of Prairie Historiography." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 33#3 (1946) pp: 391-410
in JSTOR
* Tyrrell, Ian. "Public at the Creation: Place, Memory, and Historical Practice in the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, 1907-1950," ''Journal of American History'' (2007) 94#1 pp. 19–4
in JSTOR

Before 1783

* Fisher, James. "A Forgotten Hero Remembered, Revered, and Revised: The Legacy and Ordeal of George Rogers Clark." ''Indiana Magazine of History'' (1996): 109-132
online
* Pauketat, Timothy R. ''Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi '' (2009) * White, Richard. ''The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes region, 1650-1815'' (1991)

Frontier Era: 1783-1850

* Barnhart, John D. ''Valley of Democracy: The Frontier versus the Plantation in the Ohio Valley, 1775-1818'' (1953) * Billington, Ray Allen, and Martin Ridge. ''Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier'' (5th ed. 2001); 892 pp; textbook with 160pp of detailed annotated bibliographies * Buley, R. Carlyle. ''The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period 1815–1840'' 2 vol (1951), Pulitzer Prize * Etcheson, Nicole. ''Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era'' (2006) * Lamar, Howard, ed. ''The New Encyclopedia of the American West'' (1998); this is a revised version of ''Reader's Encyclopedia of the American West'' ed. by Howard Lamar (1977) * Larson, John Lauritz. "Teaching the West in the Early American Republic: Old Chestnuts and the Fruits of New Research." ''Magazine of History'' (2000): 17-20
in JSTOR
historiography * Rodriguez, Junius P. ed. ''The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia'' (2002) * Scheiber, Harry N. ed. ''The Old Northwest; studies in regional history, 1787-1910'' (1969) 16 essays by scholars on economic and social topics * Smelser, Marshall. "Tecumseh, Harrison, and the War of 1812," ''Indiana Magazine of History'' (March 1969) 65#1 pp 25-4
online
* Watts, Edward, and David Rachels, eds. ''The First West: Writing from the American Frontier, 1776-1860'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), 960pp; primary source
excerpt and text search
* Wyman, Mark. ''The Wisconsin Frontier'' (2009)

Civil War & Gilded Age

* Barker, Brett, et al. eds. ''Union Heartland: The Midwestern Home Front During the Civil War'' (2013). * Gjerde, John. ''Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917'' (1999
excerpt and text search
* Jensen, Richard. ''The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896'' (1971)
online free
*Jordan, Philip D.''Ohio Comes of Age: 1873-1900 Volume 5'' (1968
online
* Kleppner, Paul. ''Cross of Culture'' (1970) * Nye, Russel B. ''Midwestern Progressive Politics'' (1959) * Scheiber, Harry N. ed. ''The Old Northwest; studies in regional history, 1787-1910'' (1969) 16 essays by scholars on economic and social topics * Thornbrough, Emma Lou. ''Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850-1880'' (1965); the standard scholarly history

1900 to 1940

* Billington, Ray Allen. "The Origins of Middle Western Isolationism," ''Political Science Quarterly'' (1945) 60#1, 45-64
in JSTOR
* Bonnifield, Paul. ''The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression'', (University of New Mexico Press, 1978) * Shannon, Fred A. "The Status of the Midwestern Farmer in 1900" ''

The Mississippi Valley Historical Review ''The Journal of American History'' is the official academic journal of the Organization of American Historians. It covers the field of American history and was established in 1914 as the ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', the official jo ...

''. (1950), 37#3 pp: 491–510
in JSTOR

1940 to present

* Hurt, R. Douglas. ''The Great Plains during World War II.'' (U of Nebraska Press, 2008). Pp. 507pp. * Wuthnow, Robert. '' Remaking the Heartland: Middle America since the 1950s'' (2011) comprehensive surve
excerpt

Culture

* Hutton, Graham.
Midwest at Noon
' (1946), analysis of regional culture * Rees, Amanda. ''The Great Plains Region: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures'' (2004); architecture, art, fashion, folklore, food, language, literature, music, religion, and sports * Shortridge, James R. ''The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture'' (1989
excerpt and text search
* Slade, Joseph W. and Judith Lee. ''The Midwest: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures'' (2004); architecture, art, fashion, folklore, food, language, literature, music, religion, and sports

Economics

Agriculture

* Atack, Jeremy and Fred Bateman. ''To Their Own Soil: Agriculture in the Antebellum North'' (Iowa State University Press, 1987)* Grant, Michael Johnston. ''Down and Out on the Family Farm: Rural Rehabilitation in the Great Plains, 1929-1945'', (University of Nebraska Press, (2002) * Hart, John Fraser. "Change in the corn belt." ''Geographical Review'' (1986) pp: 51-72
online
* Jones, Robert Leslie. ''History of Agriculture in Ohio to 1880'' (1983) * Jones, Robert Leslie. "The Horse and Mule Industry in Ohio to 1865." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' (1946): 61-88
in JSTOR
* Page, Brian and Richard Walker. "From Settlement to Fordism: The Agro-Industrial Revolution in the American Midwest," ''Economic Geography'' (1991) 67#4, 281-315. * Shannon, Fred A. "The Status of the Midwestern Farmer in 1900" ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' (1950) 27#3 pp: 491–510
in JSTOR

Industry

* High, Stephen C. ''Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt, 1969-1984'' (2003) * Longworth, Richard C. ''Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism'' (2008) * Meyer, David R. "Midwestern Industrialization and the American Manufacturing Belt in the Nineteenth Century", ''

The Journal of Economic History ''The Journal of Economic History'' is an academic journal of economic history which has been published since 1941. Many of its articles are quantitative, often following the formal approaches that have been called cliometrics or the new economi ...

'', Vol. 49, No. 4 (December, 1989) pp. 921–93
in JSTOR
* Page, Brian and Richard Walker. "From Settlement to Fordism: The Agro-Industrial Revolution in the American Midwest," ''Economic Geography'' (1991) 67#4, 281-315.

Labor

* Boryczka, Raymond, and Lorin Lee Cary. ''No Strength Without Union: An Illustrated History of Ohio Workers, 1803-1980'' Ohio Historical Society, 1982. * Critchlow, Donald (ed.). ''Socialism in the Heartland: The Midwestern Experience, 1900-1925.'' Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986. * Feurer, Rosemary. ''Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950.'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006. * Higbie, Frank Tobias. ''Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880-1930.'' (2003). * Margo, Robert A. "Regional Wage Gaps and the Settlement of the Midwest." ''Explorations in Economic History'' (1999) 36#2 pp: 128-143. * Nelson, Daniel. ''Farm and Factory: Workers in the Midwest 1880-1990.'' (1995
online review
* Neth, Mary. "Gender and the Family Labor System: Defining Work in the Rural Midwest." ''Journal of Social History'' (1994): 563-577
in JSTOR
* Schob, David E. ''Hired Hands and Plowboys: Farm labor in the Midwest, 1815-60.'' (1975). * Warren, Wilson J. ''Struggling with Iowa's Pride: Labor Relations, Unionism, and Politics in the Rural Midwest Since 1877.'' (2000)

Railroads and transportation

* Atack, Jeremy, et al. "Did railroads induce or follow economic growth? Urbanization and Population Growth in the American Midwest, 1850–1860." ''Social Science History'' 34.2 (2010): 171-197
online
* Campbell, Ballard. "The Good Roads Movement in Wisconsin, 1890-1911," ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' 49 (1966): 273-93 * * Kane, Adam I. ''The Western River Steamboat'' (2004) * Larson, John Lauritz. ''Bonds of enterprise: John Murray Forbes and western development in America's railway age'' (2010). * Mercer, Lloyd J. "Land Grants to American Railroads: Social Cost or Social Benefit?" ''Business History Review'' (1969) 43#2 pp 134-15
in JSTOR
* Meyer, Balthasar Henry, and Caroline Elizabeth MacGill. ''History of Transportation in the United States before 1860'' (1917)
online
* White, Richard. ''Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America'' (2011)

Geography, land and environment

* Blouet, Brian W. and Frederick C. Luebke, eds. ''The Great Plains: Environment and Culture'' (U of Nebraska Press, 1979) * Cronon, William. ''Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West'' (1992), 1850–190
excerpt and text search
* Garland, John H. ''The North American Midwest: A Regional Geography'' (1955) * Hart, John Fraser. "The Middle West." ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'' (1972) 62#2 pp: 258-282. in JSTOR * Rohrbough, Malcolm J. '' The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789-1837'' (1968) * Van Atta, John R. ''Securing the West: Politics, Public Lands, and the Fate of the Old Republic, 1785--1850'' (2014)

Politics

* Buck, Solon J. ''The Granger Movement: A Study of Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic and Social Manifestations, 1870-1880'' (1913
online
* Fenton, James H. ''Midwest politics'' (1966), voting patterns by state * Lauck, Jon K. and Catherine McNicol Stock, eds. ''The Conservative Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest'' (UP of Kansas, 2020
online review
* Pearce, Neal R. '' The Great Plains States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Nine Great Plains States'' (1973); in-depth coverage of politics and economy * Pearce, Neal R. '' The Great Lakes States of America: People, politics, and power in the Five Great Lakes States'' (1980); in-depth coverage of politics and economy

Social history

Education

* Fuller, Wayne. ''The Old Country School: The Story of Rural Education in the Middle West'' (U of Chicago Press, 1982). * Mattingly, Paul H. and Edward W. Stevens Jr. ''Schools and the Means of Education Shall Forever Be Encouraged: A History of Education in the Old Northwest, 1787-1880'' (1987), 132pp * Theobald, Paul. ''Call School: Rural Education in the Midwest to 1918'' (Southern Illinois University Press, 1995) * Wheeler, Kenneth H. ''Cultivating Regionalism: Higher Education and the Making of the American Midwest'' (2011)

Race

* Lehman, Christopher P. ''Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865'' (2011) * Thornbrough, Emma Lou. ''Negro in Indiana before 1900 : a study of a minority'' 1993 * Thornbrough, Emma Lou. ''Indiana Blacks in the twentieth century'' (2001
online

Religion

* Barlow, Philip, and Mark Silk, eds. ''Religion and public life in the Midwest: America's common denominator?'' (2004) * Bodensieck, Julius, ed. ''The encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church'' (3 vol 1965
vol 1 and 3 online free
* Brauer, James Leonard and Fred L. Precht, eds. ''Lutheran Worship: History and Practice'' (1993) * Gjerde, Jon. ''The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural evolution in the rural Middle West, 1830-1917'' (1999) * Granquist, Mark. ''Lutherans in America: A New History'' (2015) * Madison, James H. "Reformers and the Rural Church, 1900-1950," ''Journal of American History'' 73 (1986): 645-68. * Meyer, Carl S. '' Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod'' (1986) * Sweet, W.W. ed. ''Religion on the American Frontier'' (4 vol 1931-46), primary sources; lengthy volumes on Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians

Rural

* Barron, Hal S. ''Mixed Harvest: the Second Great Transformation in the Rural North, 1870-1930'' (1997). * Douglas, Lake. "'To Improve the Soil and the Mind': Content and Context of Nineteenth-Century Agricultural Literature." ''Landscape Journal'' 25.1 (2006): 67-79. * Fry, John. “Good Farming – Clear Thinking – Right Living”: Midwestern Farm Newspapers, Social Reform, and Rural Readers in the Early Twentieth Century.” ''Agricultural History'' 78#1 (2004): 34-49. * Motz, Marilyn Ferris. "Folk Expression of Time and Place: 19th-Century Midwestern Rural Diaries." ''Journal of American Folklore'' 100#396 (1987): 131-147.
online
* Neth, Mary. ''Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community, and the Foundations of Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1945'' (1995). * Reynolds, David R. ''There goes the neighborhood: Rural school consolidation at the grass roots in early twentieth-century Iowa'' (U of Iowa Press, 2002). * Riney-Kehrberg, Pamela. ''Childhood on the Farm: Work, Play, and Coming of Age in the Midwest'' (2005). * Riney-Kehrberg, Pamela. “Farm Youth and Progressive Agricultural Reform: Dexter D. Mayne and the Farm Boy Cavaliers of America.” ''Agricultural History'' 85#4 (2011) 437-459. * Weber, Margaret. "Making the best better: 4-H and rural anxiety in the early twentieth century." (MA thesis Iowa State University, 2013
online

Settlement and ethnicity

* Aponte, Robert, and Marcelo Siles Cabrera. "Latinos in the heartland: The browning of the Midwest" (Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University, 1994
online
* Gjerde, Jon. ''The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural evolution in the rural Middle West, 1830-1917'' (1999) * Hudson, John C. "North American Origins of Middlewestern Frontier Populations," ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'' (1988) 78#3 pp: 395-413
in JSTOR
* Mathews, Lois Kimbell. ''The Expansion of New England: The Spread of New England Settlement and Institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620- 1865'' (1909
online
* Power, Richard Lyle. ''Planting Corn Belt Culture: The Impress of the Upland Southerner and Yankee in the Old Northwest'' (1953).

Urban

* Bodenhamer, David, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis'' (1994) * Muller, Edward K. "Selective urban growth in the Middle Ohio Valley, 1800-1860." ''Geographical Review'' (1976): 178-199
online
als
in JSTOR
* Reiff, Janice L., Ann Durkin Keating, and James R. Grossman, eds. ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'' (2005
complete online version
* Teaford, Jon C. ''Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest'' (1993) * Van Tassell, David, and John J Grabowski, eds. ''The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History'' (2nd ed. 1996)

Women

* Aley, Ginette. "'Knotted Together Like Roots in the Darkness': Rural Midwestern Women and Region-A Bibliographic Guide." ''Agricultural history'' (2003) 77#3 pp: 453-481
in JSTOR
* Aley, Ginette. "A Republic of Farm People: Women, Families, and Market-Minded Agrarianism in Ohio, 1820s–1830s." ''Ohio History'' (2007) 114#1 pp: 28-45

* Gabin, Nancy. "Fallow Yet Fertile: The Field of Indiana Women's History." ''Indiana Magazine of History'' (2000
online
* Jensen, Joan M. ''Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1850-1925'' (Minnesota Historical Press: 2006). * Johnson, Yvonne, ed. ''Feminist Frontiers: Women who Shaped the Midwest'' (Truman State Univ Press, 2010
excerpt and text search
* Murphy, Lucy Eldersveld, and Wendy Hamand Venet, eds. ''Midwestern Women: Work, Community, and Leadership at the Crossroads'' (1997), * Neth, Mary. ''Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community, and the Foundations of Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1945'' (1995). * Riley, Glenda. ''The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women on the Prairie and the Plains'' (1988) * Schlissel, Lillian. ''Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey'' (2004
excerpt
* Stuhler, Barbara, and Gretchen V. Kreuter, eds. ''Women of Minnesota: Selected Biographical Essays'' (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998), 16 essays by experts covering numerous women

Primary sources

* Frederick, John T., ed. ''Out of the Midwest: A Collection of Present-Day Writing'' (1944) 428pp * Watts, Edward, and David Rachels, eds. ''The First West: Writing from the American Frontier, 1776-1860'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), 960pp; primary source
excerpt and text search
long excerpts from 59 authors, chiefly Midwesterners