December 2023 MBR The American History Shelf

The American History Shelf

Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900
R. Douglas Hurt
University of Nebraska Press
www.nebraskapress.unl.edu
9781496233493, $70.00, HC, 448pp

https://www.amazon.com/Agriculture-Midwest-1815-1900-Prof-Douglas/dp/1496233492

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

"Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900" by Professor R. Douglas Hurt is a broad and authoritative survey of midwestern agriculture from the War of 1812 to the turn of the twentieth century. Professor 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.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of illustrations, fifty-two pages of Notes, a ten page Selected Bibliography, and an eight page Index, "Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900" is a work of meticulous historical research. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library 19th Century American History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $66.50).

Editorial Note: R. Douglas Hurt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Douglas_Hurt) is a professor of history at Purdue University. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Food and Agriculture during the Civil War; The Big Empty: The Great Plains in the Twentieth Century; and The Great Plains during World War II (Bison Books, 2010).

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