Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900

The American Midwest became a paradoxical land for settlers after the War of 1812, with some finding disappointment and others suffering social and racial prejudice. R. Douglas Hurt's book "The Country's Garden Spot: A History of Midwestern Agriculture from the War of 1812 to the Turn of the Twentieth Century" argues that the region was the country's garden spot and heart of agricultural production, transforming from a sparsely settled area to a home of large industrial and commercial cities. It remained primarily an agricultural region that promised a better life for many people.

Format: Hardback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 01 July 2023
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

After the War of 1812 and the removal of the region's Indigenous peoples, the American Midwest became a paradoxical land for settlers. While many settlers found that the region provided the bountiful life of their dreams, others found disappointment, even failure, and still others suffered social and racial prejudice.

In this comprehensive and authoritative survey of midwestern agriculture from the War of 1812 to the turn of the twentieth century, R. Douglas Hurt contends that this region proved to be the country's garden spot and the nation's heart of agricultural production. During these eighty-five years, the region transformed from a sparsely settled area to the home of large industrial and commercial cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Detroit. Still, it remained primarily an agricultural region that promised a better life for many of the people who acquired land, raised crops and livestock, provided for their families, adopted new technologies, and sought political reform to benefit their economic interests.

Focusing on the history of midwestern agriculture during wartime, utopian isolation, and colonization as well as political unrest, Hurt contextualizes myriad facets of the region's past to show how agricultural life developed for midwestern farmers—and to reflect on what that meant for the region and nation.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496233493