Remaking the Heartland

by Wuthnow, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780691146119
• ISBN10: 069114611X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-28
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

For many Americans, the Midwest is a vast unknown. InRemaking the Heartland, Robert Wuthnow sets to rectify this. He shows how the region has undergone extraordinary social transformations over the past half-century, and proven itself surprisingly resilient in the face of such hardships as the Great Depression and the movement of residents to other parts of the country. He examines the heartland's reinvention throughout the decades and traces the social and economic factors that have helped it to survive and prosper.Wuthnow points to the critical strength of the region's social institutions established between 1870 and 1950--the market towns, farmsteads, one-room schoolhouses, townships, rural cooperatives, and manufacturing centers that have adapted with the changing times. He focuses on farmers' struggles to recover from the Great Depression well into the 1950s, the cultural redefinition and modernization of the region's image that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, the growth of secondary and higher education, the decline of small towns, the redeployment of agribusiness, and the rapid expansion of edge cities. Drawing his arguments from extensive interviews and evidence from the towns and counties of the Midwest, Wuthnow provides a unique perspective as both an objective observer and someone who grew up there.Remaking the Heartlandoffers an accessible look at the humble yet strong foundations that have allowed the region to endure undiminished.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Here in the Middle	p. 7
Recovering from the Great Depression	p. 22
Reinventing the Rustic Life	p. 57
Education in Middle America	p. 92
The Decline of Small Communities	p. 126
The Changing Face of Agribusiness	p. 171
From Towns to Sprawling Suburbs	p. 214
Afterword	p. 254
Appendix	p. 261
Notes	p. 285
Selected Bibliography	p. 335
Index	p. 349
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