This book is a well-argued analysis of a variety of sources in the tradition of Henry Nash Smith\u27s Virgin Land and Leo Marx\u27s The Machine in the Garden. While Shortridge does not attempt to lay to rest the question of the objective existence of a midwestern culture or examine the nature of that culture and its origins, his work will nevertheless stimulate a good deal of debate and further research

Tassel, David D. Van

English

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1991 Review of The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture. David D. Van Tassel Case Western Reserve University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly  Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Tassel, David D. Van, "Review of The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture." (1991). Great Plains Quarterly. 632. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/632 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 214 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1991 The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Cul-ture. By James R. Shortridge. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989. Illustra-tions, maps, notes, bibliography, index. xiv + 201 pp. $25.00. In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in historical regions in the United States. Regionalism had fallen on hard times, at least among historians, after the publication of Merrill Jensen's book of essays, Regionalism in America, in 1951. Centers, histories, and en-cyclopedias of the South, the West, the Pacific Northwest, and the Great Plains, have devel-oped during the last decade or so, but America's heartland, the Middle West, has come in for very little scrutiny. James R. Shortridge, a cul-tural geographer at the University of Kansas, has produced a delightful and important study of the concept and meaning of the Middle West in American culture. Professor Shortridge counts himself as among a small group of humanistic geographers, and this is "an unconventional ge-ography" in that it examines the "emotion-laden and particularistic term 'place, '" as opposed to the traditional concern of "scientific" geogra-phers with space. The work deals with percep-tions of the Middle West and its meaning in fiction and popular culture. He argues that the Middle West stands as symbol for the pastoral aspect of American culture, in contrast to the complex and predominant urban reality of the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. In fact, midwestern culture suffers from a vague-ness and ambiguity of identity, largely because, according to Shortridge, there is no historical core for midwestern culture, such as Puritanism for New England, slavery and the Civil War experience for the South, and the cattle in-dustry for the southwestern plains. The Middle West has always been 'middle'-in between. In fact, the term first referred to Kansas and Ne-braska, the site of a stable middle-of-the-West in the 1880s-that is, midway between the Southwest, Texas and the Oklahoma Indian Territory, and the Northwest, the Dakotas and Minnesota. The term quickly expanded to in-clude twelve states by 1902 because of the grow-ing recognition of the far Northwest or Pacific Northwest. Just before World War I the Middle West reached its pinnacle of self-identification and assurance as a center of the pastoral traits of morality and egalitarian independence as op-posed to the Far West which was still brash and young and the East which was old and stodgy. The Middle West reached the height of its young maturity full of energy and ideals, and the heart-land became the vital core. Although between BOOK REVIEWS 215 1900 and the 1920s there was, among writers and journalists, an attempt to create a hybrid harmony of agricultural and industrial images, such as the descriptions of Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago that praised technology, energy and progress, and the automobile, above all, which became the symbol of virile American enterprise, yet this never altered the pastoral midwestern image. In fact, Shortridge argues, the Midwest is a prime example of our need to regionalize national myths in order to avoid confrontation with contradictions. After 1920 popular literature equates the Middle West with unchanging pastoral values and tradition. In-terestingly enough, Shortridge finds that per-ceptions of the physical boundaries of the Midwest have been shifting since the 1950s, to move westward to include the plains states and to the exclusion of Ohio and parts of Indiana, Michigan, and parts of Illinois. Shortridge does not entirely neglect the paraphernalia of the geographer, for he uses cognitive maps to illus-trate these shifting perceptions of the location of the Midwest. This book is a well-argued analysis of a va-riety of sources in the tradition of Henry Nash Smith's Virgin Land and Leo Marx's The Machine in the Garden. While Shortridge does not at-tempt to lay to rest the question of the objective existence of a midwestern culture or examine the nature of that culture and its origins, his work will nevertheless stimulate a good deal of debate and further research. DAVID D. VAN TASSEL Department of History Case Western Reserve University 

Review of The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture.

UNL | Libraries

University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 
1991 
Review of The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture. 
David D. Van Tassel 
Case Western Reserve University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly 
 Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons 
Tassel, David D. Van, "Review of The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture." (1991). Great Plains 
Quarterly. 632. 
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/632 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an 
authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 
214 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1991 
The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Cul-
ture. By James R. Shortridge. Lawrence: 
University Press of Kansas, 1989. Illustra-
tions, maps, notes, bibliography, index. xiv 
+ 201 pp. $25.00. 
In recent years there has been a resurgence 
of interest in historical regions in the United 
States. Regionalism had fallen on hard times, 
at least among historians, after the publication 
of Merrill Jensen's book of essays, Regionalism 
in America, in 1951. Centers, histories, and en-
cyclopedias of the South, the West, the Pacific 
Northwest, and the Great Plains, have devel-
oped during the last decade or so, but America's 
heartland, the Middle West, has come in for 
very little scrutiny. James R. Shortridge, a cul-
tural geographer at the University of Kansas, 
has produced a delightful and important study 
of the concept and meaning of the Middle West 
in American culture. Professor Shortridge counts 
himself as among a small group of humanistic 
geographers, and this is "an unconventional ge-
ography" in that it examines the "emotion-laden 
and particularistic term 'place, '" as opposed to 
the traditional concern of "scientific" geogra-
phers with space. The work deals with percep-
tions of the Middle West and its meaning in 
fiction and popular culture. He argues that the 
Middle West stands as symbol for the pastoral 
aspect of American culture, in contrast to the 
complex and predominant urban reality of the 
late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. In 
fact, midwestern culture suffers from a vague-
ness and ambiguity of identity, largely because, 
according to Shortridge, there is no historical 
core for midwestern culture, such as Puritanism 
for New England, slavery and the Civil War 
experience for the South, and the cattle in-
dustry for the southwestern plains. The Middle 
West has always been 'middle'-in between. In 
fact, the term first referred to Kansas and Ne-
braska, the site of a stable middle-of-the-West 
in the 1880s-that is, midway between the 
Southwest, Texas and the Oklahoma Indian 
Territory, and the Northwest, the Dakotas and 
Minnesota. The term quickly expanded to in-
clude twelve states by 1902 because of the grow-
ing recognition of the far Northwest or Pacific 
Northwest. Just before World War I the Middle 
West reached its pinnacle of self-identification 
and assurance as a center of the pastoral traits 
of morality and egalitarian independence as op-
posed to the Far West which was still brash and 
young and the East which was old and stodgy. 
The Middle West reached the height of its young 
maturity full of energy and ideals, and the heart-
land became the vital core. Although between 
BOOK REVIEWS 215 
1900 and the 1920s there was, among writers 
and journalists, an attempt to create a hybrid 
harmony of agricultural and industrial images, 
such as the descriptions of Cleveland, Detroit, 
and Chicago that praised technology, energy 
and progress, and the automobile, above all, 
which became the symbol of virile American 
enterprise, yet this never altered the pastoral 
midwestern image. In fact, Shortridge argues, 
the Midwest is a prime example of our need to 
regionalize national myths in order to avoid 
confrontation with contradictions. After 1920 
popular literature equates the Middle West with 
unchanging pastoral values and tradition. In-
terestingly enough, Shortridge finds that per-
ceptions of the physical boundaries of the 
Midwest have been shifting since the 1950s, to 
move westward to include the plains states and 
to the exclusion of Ohio and parts of Indiana, 
Michigan, and parts of Illinois. Shortridge does 
not entirely neglect the paraphernalia of the 
geographer, for he uses cognitive maps to illus-
trate these shifting perceptions of the location 
of the Midwest. 
This book is a well-argued analysis of a va-
riety of sources in the tradition of Henry Nash 
Smith's Virgin Land and Leo Marx's The Machine 
in the Garden. While Shortridge does not at-
tempt to lay to rest the question of the objective 
existence of a midwestern culture or examine 
the nature of that culture and its origins, his 
work will nevertheless stimulate a good deal of 
debate and further research. 
DAVID D. VAN TASSEL 
Department of History 
Case Western Reserve University 


https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1631&amp;context=greatplainsquarterly

Review of The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture.

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska

UNL | Libraries