Creating Minnesota : A History from the Inside Out

by Atkins, Annette

• ISBN13: 9780873515962
• ISBN10: 087351596X
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780873516648
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-15
• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Pr
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Renowned historian Annette Atkins presents a fresh understanding of how a complex and modern Minnesota came into being inCreating Minnesota. Each chapter of this innovative state history focuses on a telling detail, a revealing incident, or a meaningful issue that illuminates a larger event, social trends, or politics during a period in our past. A three-act play about Minnesotars"s statehood vividly depicts the competing interests of Natives, traders, and politicians who lived in the same territory but moved in different worlds. Oranges are the focal point of a chapter about railroads and transportation: how did a St. Paul family manage to celebrate their 1898 Christmas with fruit that grew no closer than 1,500 miles from their home? A photo essay brings to life three communities of the 1920s, seen through the lenses of local and itinerant photographers. The much-sought state fish helps to explain the new Minnesota, where pan-fried walleye and walleye quesadillas coexist on the same north woods menu. InCreating MinnesotaAtkins invites readers to experience the texture of peoplers"s lives through the decades, offering a fascinating and unparalleled approach to the history of our state. Annette Atkinsis a professor of history at St. Johnrs"s University in Collegeville and the author ofHarvest of Grief: Grasshopper Plagues and Public Assistance in Minnesota, 18731878(MHS Press) andWe Grew Up Together: Brothers and Sisters in Nineteenth-Century America.

Author Biography

Annette Atkins is professor of history at Saint John's University and the College of Saint Benedict, where she holds the Edward. P. and Loretta H. Flynn Professorship in the Humanities.

Table of Contents

Preface: The State I'm In	p. xi
The Shape of Water and the Feel of Trees: A South Dakotan in Minnesota	p. 3
Dancing the Rice	p. 11
Campbell Country	p. 26
Playing with the Future	p. 34
One Mixed-Blood Family Looks for Its Place	p. 49
The War Touched Us All	p. 61
Not Drawn to Scale	p. 72
Making a Living, Making a Life	p. 84
The Fairbrothers' Christmas	p. 100
Becoming Better and Becoming American	p. 107
The Look of the 1920s	p. 119
Hanging on for Dear Life	p. 170
We Never Had Enough Sugar	p. 192
Style Comes to Staples	p. 205
"The House That Hubert Built"	p. 219
Walleye Quesadilla and the New Minnesota	p. 236
Timeline: Dates Tell a Story, Too	p. 251
Epilogue: Synecdoche	p. 265
A Word to the Wise: Thank You	p. 267
Notes	p. 269
Index	p. 303
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