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The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800–1900
At the center of American history is a hole—a gap where some scholars’ indifference or disdain has too long stood in for the true story of the American Midwest. A first-ever chronicle of the Midwest’s formative century, The Good Country restores this American heartland to its central place in the nation’s history.
Jon K. Lauck, the premier historian of the region, puts midwestern “squares” center stage—an unorthodox approach that leads to surprising conclusions. The American Midwest, in Lauck’s cogent account, was the most democratically advanced place in the world during the nineteenth century. The Good Country describes a rich civic culture that prized education, literature, libraries, and the arts; developed a stable social order grounded in Victorian norms, republican virtue, and Christian teachings; and generally put democratic ideals into practice to a greater extent than any nation to date.
The outbreak of the Civil War and the fight against the slaveholding South only deepened the Midwest’s dedication to advancing a democratic culture and solidified its regional identity. The “good country” was, of course, not the “perfect country,” and Lauck devotes a chapter to the question of race in the Midwest, finding early examples of overt racism but also discovering a steady march toward racial progress. He also finds many instances of modest reforms enacted through the democratic process and designed to address particular social problems, as well as significant advances for women, who were active in civic affairs and took advantage of the Midwest’s openness to women in higher education.
Lauck reaches his conclusions through a measured analysis that weighs historical achievements and injustices, rejects the acrimonious tones of the culture wars, and seeks a new historical discourse grounded in fair readings of the American past. In a trying time of contested politics and culture, his book locates a middle ground, fittingly, in the center of the country.
Jon K. Lauck, the premier historian of the region, puts midwestern “squares” center stage—an unorthodox approach that leads to surprising conclusions. The American Midwest, in Lauck’s cogent account, was the most democratically advanced place in the world during the nineteenth century. The Good Country describes a rich civic culture that prized education, literature, libraries, and the arts; developed a stable social order grounded in Victorian norms, republican virtue, and Christian teachings; and generally put democratic ideals into practice to a greater extent than any nation to date.
The outbreak of the Civil War and the fight against the slaveholding South only deepened the Midwest’s dedication to advancing a democratic culture and solidified its regional identity. The “good country” was, of course, not the “perfect country,” and Lauck devotes a chapter to the question of race in the Midwest, finding early examples of overt racism but also discovering a steady march toward racial progress. He also finds many instances of modest reforms enacted through the democratic process and designed to address particular social problems, as well as significant advances for women, who were active in civic affairs and took advantage of the Midwest’s openness to women in higher education.
Lauck reaches his conclusions through a measured analysis that weighs historical achievements and injustices, rejects the acrimonious tones of the culture wars, and seeks a new historical discourse grounded in fair readings of the American past. In a trying time of contested politics and culture, his book locates a middle ground, fittingly, in the center of the country.
362 pages, Paperback
Published November 17, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 3, 2023
In “The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest 1800-1900,” Jon Lauck has produced a paean to the development of the Midwest’s uniquely American identity in recent history. Lauck, the founding president of the Midwestern History Association and professor of history and political science at the University of a South Dakota, describes how the Midwest served as a wellspring of civic and cultural stewardship, idealism, egalitarianism, participatory politics, and democratic pluralism that was regionally (and globally) unique during its time. Rather than a bastion of “backwardness, sterility, racial injustice, and oppression,” Lauck prods us to instead view the American Midwest as a “land of democratic vigor, cultural strength, racial and gender progress, and civic energy — a Good Country” that was the “most democratic society the world had seen to date.”
This overlooked “shining city on a hill” was distinct from the aristocratic and monochromatic Northeast and rigid, hierarchical and oppressive South. The Midwest became the land where Old World social hierarchies and ancestral privileges went to die; in their stead lay the rudiments of a vigorously democratic and pluralistic society imbued with a pragmatic and entrepreneurial spirit. This spirit was especially animated by an ideology of republican labor, moral uplift, and egalitarianism that created what Lauck calls the “furthest realization of democratic idealism.” These energies manifested in multitudes of farmers movements, multi denominational churches, agricultural societies, voluntary associations, service clubs, fraternal organizations, a robust print culture, land grant colleges, universal suffrage, and women’s organizations. In the Midwest, schools opened their doors to women and men alike, homes sounded with family prayers and Bible readings, local libraries and print magazines were widely accessible, families attended county fairs to hear lyceum lecturers, and farmers engaged in a robust civic life in fraternal organizations and lodges.
In “The Good Country,” Lauck throws light on the regional contributions of the Midwest to the US’ democratic tradition. He gives shape to the often-overlooked moral, democratic, and entrepreneurial character of Midwestern society and describes how those creative instincts were reified into an array of social institutions and service organizations that tested the limits of democratic idealism. Lauck shows how the democratic center of gravity in recent American history is not found in the South or Northeast, but rather in the modest, homespun, toiling entrepreneurialism of the American Midwest.
This overlooked “shining city on a hill” was distinct from the aristocratic and monochromatic Northeast and rigid, hierarchical and oppressive South. The Midwest became the land where Old World social hierarchies and ancestral privileges went to die; in their stead lay the rudiments of a vigorously democratic and pluralistic society imbued with a pragmatic and entrepreneurial spirit. This spirit was especially animated by an ideology of republican labor, moral uplift, and egalitarianism that created what Lauck calls the “furthest realization of democratic idealism.” These energies manifested in multitudes of farmers movements, multi denominational churches, agricultural societies, voluntary associations, service clubs, fraternal organizations, a robust print culture, land grant colleges, universal suffrage, and women’s organizations. In the Midwest, schools opened their doors to women and men alike, homes sounded with family prayers and Bible readings, local libraries and print magazines were widely accessible, families attended county fairs to hear lyceum lecturers, and farmers engaged in a robust civic life in fraternal organizations and lodges.
In “The Good Country,” Lauck throws light on the regional contributions of the Midwest to the US’ democratic tradition. He gives shape to the often-overlooked moral, democratic, and entrepreneurial character of Midwestern society and describes how those creative instincts were reified into an array of social institutions and service organizations that tested the limits of democratic idealism. Lauck shows how the democratic center of gravity in recent American history is not found in the South or Northeast, but rather in the modest, homespun, toiling entrepreneurialism of the American Midwest.
June 4, 2025
I read this book as a primer for a project I am working on. I am a Midwest native, although from the suburbs of Chicago.
I took a big break on this book, but was determined to finish it. I think I would give it a 2.5 (that is using Goodreads' own rating system that lists two stars as "It was Ok" and three as "liked it. I might stop using their system, though, as no one else seems to.) There are many very listy sections where a list of publications or laws takes up most of a paragraph, as other reviewers noted, but I can't say it bothered me tremendously. A lot of the language the other used rubbed me as overly defensive, and while that does make sense with the thesis he lays out in his book, it still set off a little rhetorical check in my head. The example that compared to Czarist Russia and the Midwest made me roll my eyes a little, not that I believe that his claim that the Midwest was more progressive was wrong, but it did seem a little Overwrought.
Still, the book is a good introduction to the region, and as a jumping off point for further reading and sources, it's fantastic.
I took a big break on this book, but was determined to finish it. I think I would give it a 2.5 (that is using Goodreads' own rating system that lists two stars as "It was Ok" and three as "liked it. I might stop using their system, though, as no one else seems to.) There are many very listy sections where a list of publications or laws takes up most of a paragraph, as other reviewers noted, but I can't say it bothered me tremendously. A lot of the language the other used rubbed me as overly defensive, and while that does make sense with the thesis he lays out in his book, it still set off a little rhetorical check in my head. The example that compared to Czarist Russia and the Midwest made me roll my eyes a little, not that I believe that his claim that the Midwest was more progressive was wrong, but it did seem a little Overwrought.
Still, the book is a good introduction to the region, and as a jumping off point for further reading and sources, it's fantastic.
October 7, 2024
The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest 1800-1900 by Jon K. Lauck, 2022, University of Oklahoma is about a surprisingly important section of the United States that actually became a cockpit in driving the transformation of the United States into a better nation than might have been because a good country emerged upon a unique land, from a foundational idea, from a people of faith and steady in practicing an ideology of freedom and hard work, and because much of the rest of the world was not good country.
The embryo of the Midwest was the Old Northwest won in battles during the Revolutionary War between the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic coast and Great Britain. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was a law that established a government for the Northwest Territory, which would become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, and it was that foundational idea set which set the Midwest from the states of the east and from the slave south. The ideas of the Midwest were generated in the east, particularly from New England, but the ordinance influenced the subsequent Constitution, written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and made operational in 1789 and became the legal and ideological superstructure of the Midwest. Of course, the rest of the Midwest came into being with the Louisiana Purchase. So, the Midwest includes Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, plus, beyond the Old Northwest, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
Those core ideas were pursued by most of those peopling the Midwest, mainly from the states of the North, but with many coming from the upper slave states. The Ordinance prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory, but allowed slaveholders to recapture enslaved people who escaped into the territory, established the first Bill of Rights, encouraged education and set aside land in each new township to support public schools, established a process for admitting new states into the Union, guaranteed that new states would be equal to the original states, protected religious freedom, guaranteed a writ of habeas corpus and trial by jury.
The section favored the yeoman farmer of Jeffersonian conception. This section established fairly mild brands of Protestant churches that even attracted Catholics and Jews. Starting with Ohio, the eastern gateway to this emerging cultural and political geography. And because this section succeeded in retaining and increasing a hostility to slavery, its people were the intellectual and military spearhead for defeating the slave South during the Civil War.
Not only did the Midwest give rise to President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses Grant, but to a host of Civil War officers and others growing up in the Midwest for the Republican Party that would occupy the White House, and other branches of the Federal Government well past World War I.
The book notes from the beginning that this “good country” was good because much of the rest of the world were not as good to settle in, and to establish a modern nation in. The rest of the world, including Great Britain and France, were hindered by ideology and practice, creating countries that were not very good. Of course, the country of the Midwest was not perfect. The original sins of genocidal wars against Native Americans, and the restrictions against Free Negroes arose and only slowly rolled back. The advancement of women, African Americans, and de-tribalized American Indians did occur through steady and mild reforms, but much still needs to be done.
The book promises and does cover the 19th Century creation of the Midwest, between 1800 and 1900, but by necessity and examples, the historian idea of the long nineteenth century peeks through, already as noted with the creations of the Ordinance and the Constitution in the 1780s and 1790s, but also as the Midwest section drove its national influence and sectional developments into the first quarter or more of the 20th Century.
The book does not make note of the fact that the Midwest contains the best combination of fertile soil and a river transportation availability unmatched anywhere else in the world. But an examination of the map of the Midwest states, overlaying that advantageous physical geography, made the subsequent political geographic facts possible.
The Midwest was a democratic culture with faith, hard work, education and literature, and a muscle to defeat that which was servitude, ignorant and less democratic.
Contents: Introduction: The Exceptionalism of the Old Square World; ‘A Free and Unrestricted Mode of Life’: Planting Democracy in the Midwest; ‘Moulded for Good’: The Growth of a Common Democratic Culture in the Midwest; ‘The Attitude of the Section Itself’ : The Formation of Midwestern Regional Identity; ‘Also a Seamy Side to Certain Phases of the History of the Valley’: Racial Failures and Advances in the Good Country; ‘Nothing Else Quite Like It in the World’: The Midwest and the Age of Mild Reform; Conclusion: Finding Virtue in the Good Country.
From the introduction:
“Given the prevailing atmosphere of disdain and indifference, readers may be surprised at what a new look at Midwestern history reveals. Once the cobwebs are cleared off old journals, long-forgotten records consulted, and the veil of stereotypes pierced, a remarkable world is discovered. In contrast to prevailing cliches and modern platitudes about the backwardness, sterility, racial injustice, and oppression, an in-depth look at the history of the American Midwest reveals a land of democratic vigor, cultural strength, racial and gender progress, and civic energy—a Good Country, a place lost to the mists of time by chronic neglect but one well worth recovering, for the sake of both the accuracy of history and our own well-being. The Midwest of the long nineteenth century, to state it boldly, constituted the most advanced democratic society that the world had seen to date, but its achievements are rarely highlighted in history texts and indeed seldom mentioned.”
The embryo of the Midwest was the Old Northwest won in battles during the Revolutionary War between the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic coast and Great Britain. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was a law that established a government for the Northwest Territory, which would become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, and it was that foundational idea set which set the Midwest from the states of the east and from the slave south. The ideas of the Midwest were generated in the east, particularly from New England, but the ordinance influenced the subsequent Constitution, written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and made operational in 1789 and became the legal and ideological superstructure of the Midwest. Of course, the rest of the Midwest came into being with the Louisiana Purchase. So, the Midwest includes Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, plus, beyond the Old Northwest, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
Those core ideas were pursued by most of those peopling the Midwest, mainly from the states of the North, but with many coming from the upper slave states. The Ordinance prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory, but allowed slaveholders to recapture enslaved people who escaped into the territory, established the first Bill of Rights, encouraged education and set aside land in each new township to support public schools, established a process for admitting new states into the Union, guaranteed that new states would be equal to the original states, protected religious freedom, guaranteed a writ of habeas corpus and trial by jury.
The section favored the yeoman farmer of Jeffersonian conception. This section established fairly mild brands of Protestant churches that even attracted Catholics and Jews. Starting with Ohio, the eastern gateway to this emerging cultural and political geography. And because this section succeeded in retaining and increasing a hostility to slavery, its people were the intellectual and military spearhead for defeating the slave South during the Civil War.
Not only did the Midwest give rise to President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses Grant, but to a host of Civil War officers and others growing up in the Midwest for the Republican Party that would occupy the White House, and other branches of the Federal Government well past World War I.
The book notes from the beginning that this “good country” was good because much of the rest of the world were not as good to settle in, and to establish a modern nation in. The rest of the world, including Great Britain and France, were hindered by ideology and practice, creating countries that were not very good. Of course, the country of the Midwest was not perfect. The original sins of genocidal wars against Native Americans, and the restrictions against Free Negroes arose and only slowly rolled back. The advancement of women, African Americans, and de-tribalized American Indians did occur through steady and mild reforms, but much still needs to be done.
The book promises and does cover the 19th Century creation of the Midwest, between 1800 and 1900, but by necessity and examples, the historian idea of the long nineteenth century peeks through, already as noted with the creations of the Ordinance and the Constitution in the 1780s and 1790s, but also as the Midwest section drove its national influence and sectional developments into the first quarter or more of the 20th Century.
The book does not make note of the fact that the Midwest contains the best combination of fertile soil and a river transportation availability unmatched anywhere else in the world. But an examination of the map of the Midwest states, overlaying that advantageous physical geography, made the subsequent political geographic facts possible.
The Midwest was a democratic culture with faith, hard work, education and literature, and a muscle to defeat that which was servitude, ignorant and less democratic.
Contents: Introduction: The Exceptionalism of the Old Square World; ‘A Free and Unrestricted Mode of Life’: Planting Democracy in the Midwest; ‘Moulded for Good’: The Growth of a Common Democratic Culture in the Midwest; ‘The Attitude of the Section Itself’ : The Formation of Midwestern Regional Identity; ‘Also a Seamy Side to Certain Phases of the History of the Valley’: Racial Failures and Advances in the Good Country; ‘Nothing Else Quite Like It in the World’: The Midwest and the Age of Mild Reform; Conclusion: Finding Virtue in the Good Country.
From the introduction:
“Given the prevailing atmosphere of disdain and indifference, readers may be surprised at what a new look at Midwestern history reveals. Once the cobwebs are cleared off old journals, long-forgotten records consulted, and the veil of stereotypes pierced, a remarkable world is discovered. In contrast to prevailing cliches and modern platitudes about the backwardness, sterility, racial injustice, and oppression, an in-depth look at the history of the American Midwest reveals a land of democratic vigor, cultural strength, racial and gender progress, and civic energy—a Good Country, a place lost to the mists of time by chronic neglect but one well worth recovering, for the sake of both the accuracy of history and our own well-being. The Midwest of the long nineteenth century, to state it boldly, constituted the most advanced democratic society that the world had seen to date, but its achievements are rarely highlighted in history texts and indeed seldom mentioned.”
March 29, 2024
An in-depth history of a forgotten part of our nation; the former Northwest Ordinance, now commonly called the Midwest. A region that saw great strides in rights for women and abolition, was well-educated and populated with many colleges, and was more egalitarian than the East. The East comes off as overly tied to the mores of the Old Country, and the South...well, frankly, the South comes across as a bunch of bigoted dummies in comparison to Midwesterners. In some ways, I can see the lines, whether direct or indirect, from choices made in the Midwest of the 19th century--whose inhabitants included my own ancestors--and what is happening today.
I also found out that the University of Iowa was the first co-educational state institution in the country. Go Hawks!
I also found out that the University of Iowa was the first co-educational state institution in the country. Go Hawks!
February 6, 2025
Heck yeah. More books about how awesome the Midwest is, please.
I do think at various points Lauck paints a bit too sunny a picture. For example, often he introduces a quote or mentions himself how 19th Century midwesterners believed success was basically the exclusive product of hard work. Similarly, by the end of the century midwestern Protestantism basically seems to have devolved into self-improvement instructions—a fact Lauck brings up where he alludes to "the vague religiosity of Lincoln and Twain" (195) as typical of midwestern faith. And on the other hand, he maybe gives the Midwest too much credit for having good books in their libraries: "works of Hawthorne, Plutarch, Gibbon, Whittier, Dickens, Thackeray, Twain, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and James Whitcomb Riley." (196) We should give the early Midwest credit for building these institutions of education from the ground up in a brief amount of time, but it's really unnecessary to praise midwesterners for obtaining access to the world's most popular books. Just because they had a literary culture and we don't doesn't mean they should be praised. Rather it's to our own shame.
In short, Lauck praises the early Midwest too much in some areas and neglects to condemn it in some others. Still, it's a good book because it crystallizes precisely what was the culture Americans are nostalgic for. President Trump, of course, has long promised to Make America Great Again. Lauck shows just how much the greatness of America's past stands upon the normalcy of the Midwest being the Good Country.
I do think at various points Lauck paints a bit too sunny a picture. For example, often he introduces a quote or mentions himself how 19th Century midwesterners believed success was basically the exclusive product of hard work. Similarly, by the end of the century midwestern Protestantism basically seems to have devolved into self-improvement instructions—a fact Lauck brings up where he alludes to "the vague religiosity of Lincoln and Twain" (195) as typical of midwestern faith. And on the other hand, he maybe gives the Midwest too much credit for having good books in their libraries: "works of Hawthorne, Plutarch, Gibbon, Whittier, Dickens, Thackeray, Twain, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and James Whitcomb Riley." (196) We should give the early Midwest credit for building these institutions of education from the ground up in a brief amount of time, but it's really unnecessary to praise midwesterners for obtaining access to the world's most popular books. Just because they had a literary culture and we don't doesn't mean they should be praised. Rather it's to our own shame.
In short, Lauck praises the early Midwest too much in some areas and neglects to condemn it in some others. Still, it's a good book because it crystallizes precisely what was the culture Americans are nostalgic for. President Trump, of course, has long promised to Make America Great Again. Lauck shows just how much the greatness of America's past stands upon the normalcy of the Midwest being the Good Country.
May 8, 2023
Well, the intro and some of the first chapter were great. Very poignant observations & articulate arguments. Once Lauck starts to detail reasons to support his arguments, it's gets very boring very fast. Do we really need to know that (for example) Iowa rescinded black laws in 1870, but Nebraska waited until 1872? And then multiply that by every Midwest state and every law? The topics he's discussing are very important and help illustrate his premise of the Midwestern states being a sort of American democracy utopia, but I think he gets bogged down in the details. I would like to hear his take on the Midwest in the 20th century as well....maybe a complete history of the Midwest from Northwest Ordinance to today? 3.5 but not a full 4.0
May 9, 2023
The nineteenth-century Midwest was a remarkable place. There was surely no better region on this globe to call home than that stretch of flatlands west of Pittsburgh and east of Denver. Lauck shows why, mostly by example. That is to say, many times his prose is more like a group of lists. Literary clubs in this town! Churches in that town! Debating societies in this city! Women's circles in that city! He's clearly done a ton of research, though synthesis can be hard to come by at times. This is perhaps less a history of the Midwest and more a portrait of what life was like. But, in my admittedly very biased opinion, it was glorious. The "good old days"? I guess not. The "good country"? Sure seems like it to me.
August 25, 2023
I really appreciate Lauck's efforts to revive/establish a strong Midwestern body of regional scholarship, and his broad observations here are very much in line with the research I have done in Indiana. I do prefer microhistories and monographs, so this was sometimes too broad for me, but my only real complaint was how reactionary some of the narrative felt in terms of modern perspectives. I didn't disagree with his conclusions, but his justifications felt glaringly middle-aged white American male to me, and I would have preferred something that felt a little less defensive and a little less biased. But again, I did agree with his conclusions, and hope we see a lot more Midwestern scholarship arise from his efforts.
December 26, 2023
A rarity for me in that I didn’t actually finish this book. I marked it as read because I did appreciate the book but have given up for now. The introduction was excellent and I felt like that alone gave me a fuller picture of the history of the Midwest and in turn built more Midwestern pride in me. The subsequent chapters just dug deeper and more thoroughly into the intro and while they are interesting it was more than I was interested in reading this year. I may revisit the book again to get a fuller picture. Maybe I’ll get the audiobook to listen to the second half as that might help me power through it.
February 12, 2025
As someone born and raised in Ohio, I was always aware there was something just a little different about the Midwest. The people here just have a different way of looking at life, and after reading this book I feel like I understand why. Now I get it. It also made me reconsider many of my teachers, and the importance they put on local history when I was in elementary school.
I also have a better understanding about the differences between the Midwest and Eastern cities which seem to look at the Midwest as a bit of a backwater. The attitudes today evolved almost two hundred years ago, when Ohio was the new frontier.
Great book. Highly recommend to anyone who wants a better understanding of the regional differences that shaped our country. My only issue is when so many examples of specific characters and individuals are presented they begin to blend together. However, when the author wrote about broader issues such as the anti slavery movement and growth of the Republican Party or the post civil war growth of women’s rights and successes in the universities of the region, I felt the book hit its stride.
Very informative and I will be sharing my copy with several people who I am sure will enjoy it.
I also have a better understanding about the differences between the Midwest and Eastern cities which seem to look at the Midwest as a bit of a backwater. The attitudes today evolved almost two hundred years ago, when Ohio was the new frontier.
Great book. Highly recommend to anyone who wants a better understanding of the regional differences that shaped our country. My only issue is when so many examples of specific characters and individuals are presented they begin to blend together. However, when the author wrote about broader issues such as the anti slavery movement and growth of the Republican Party or the post civil war growth of women’s rights and successes in the universities of the region, I felt the book hit its stride.
Very informative and I will be sharing my copy with several people who I am sure will enjoy it.
December 30, 2022
Well researched
Even though his writing style is a bit wordy, I found this book engaging and interesting. I grew up in Ohio, learned a lot about values and history of Midwest. My mothers family imbued all of the characteristics he talks about. Not flawless, even provincial and biased, but incredibly positive about church, education, military service(all of my forebears served), mostly balanced and moderate. Its reassuring that Lauck wrote this book that captures once and forall the embodiment of Midwestern values. Now, hopefully, we can embrace this as a country
Even though his writing style is a bit wordy, I found this book engaging and interesting. I grew up in Ohio, learned a lot about values and history of Midwest. My mothers family imbued all of the characteristics he talks about. Not flawless, even provincial and biased, but incredibly positive about church, education, military service(all of my forebears served), mostly balanced and moderate. Its reassuring that Lauck wrote this book that captures once and forall the embodiment of Midwestern values. Now, hopefully, we can embrace this as a country
January 10, 2023
As a native of Illinois and a devotee of George Will's writings, I wanted to enjoy this book. However, it seemed more like a book of lists and dates. I ended up skimming through it and reading paragraphs of interest that specifically related to persons or places of interest to me. I heartily concur that there is, or used to be, a Midwest Ethic that I was proud to espouse but this book didn't do much to enlighten me.
January 6, 2025
A good overview of the history of the Midwest as a specific region of the US with unique political, civic, educational, social, and cultural distinctions characterized by high levels of literacy and commitment to democratic practices. Five chapters and a conclusion that concerns the development and growth of the Midwest in the 19th century. Lack pleads for more research on the region so as to claim or reclaim the importance of the region to American history and life.
May 28, 2023
This book relays a most important part of our American history...a history that is much forgotten. The Midwest seems to mostly passed over in the history books. Lauck's book makes up for that gap.
April 18, 2025
Excellent history of the American Midwest. Many Americans today decry the midwest as "flyover country" but the Midwest has had a profound effect on the past (and present!) of America.
Highly recommend, especially if you are familiar with Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis."
Highly recommend, especially if you are familiar with Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis."
May 1, 2025
A interesting history period (1800 to 1900) in the midwest states, regarding from setting up government and compare the difference to the "East" and "South" regions. Fun fact: University of Iowa was the first college to allow women students.
June 25, 2025
Good depiction of the things that make the Midwest good: high social cohesion, value of education, and continuous expansion of rights especially for voting. Somewhat too glowing in presentation of minority history.
December 27, 2022
My review of The Good Country: https://lawliberty.org/book-review/ou...
Want to read
January 19, 2023Interview with the author here: https://www.firstthings.com/media/the...
May 15, 2023
An important overview of the 19th century midwest. The book provides a synthesis of the scholarship about the region and provides an important interpretation of the region.
November 18, 2024
how did this make it to publication?
April 1, 2024
Samuel Johnson famously said, "people need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed." Jon Lauck’s, The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest 1800-1900, has given us an impressive reminder (and perhaps instructing just as many of us for the first time) how extraordinary the 19th century Midwest was as a civic-minded model for living.
Lauck's History starts with the Midwest's founding document, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that was passed into being the same year as our Constitution and has been described as “having no parallel in the history of other modern states." Some might even call it the Constitution 2.0. Lauck contrasts the Ordinance against the rest of the world at the time, which was still very much feudal and aristocratic in structure. (This is also refreshing by using standards of the time and not applying standards of the current moment.) He sets the context of the Midwest achievements that follow against the rest of the world to fully demonstrate how extraordinary in achievement it was. The Ordinance was a true break from Europe that promoted egalitarianism over aristocratic privilege, and proved to be a huge draw to immigrants from Europe, especially Germany, who were seeking a life free of those strict controls. The Ordinance shaped the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. Other Midwest sites like Iowa followed its framework. Key elements focused on freedom of religion, prohibition of slavery, and the strong encouragement of education. This laid a larger, cultural framework of civic obligations, economic, entrepreneurial, ideals, free, labor (anti-slavery), Victorian norms, and idealism about the country. For example, in the realm of education, state townships were required to set aside a certain number of acres to build school houses and in another example in 1860 Ohio had 20 colleges some of them already co-Ed and racially integrated as opposed to north eastern states like Massachusetts which had for colleges none of which were integrated or coeducational.
Toward the end of the book, Lauck pushes back on the misperception created some hundred years ago by a Columbia University professor Carl Van Doren and others, that the Midwest was a dull and dreary place leading to a “revolt from the village“ creating a desire of its inhabitants to escape to more interesting places like New York.
Not only has Lauck told a story worth hearing especially now but it's a well written story told in an eloquent style--even poetic in moments -- making a pleasure to read. Further, the book is impressively, well documented and supported with hundreds of sources.
Lauck is by no means saying that the 19th Century Midwest was a utopia (it's called the Good Country, not the Perfect Country), but rather that it has many virtues that are worth remembering especially for the problems we face today. Something Samuel Johnson might say is worth a reminder.
Lauck's History starts with the Midwest's founding document, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that was passed into being the same year as our Constitution and has been described as “having no parallel in the history of other modern states." Some might even call it the Constitution 2.0. Lauck contrasts the Ordinance against the rest of the world at the time, which was still very much feudal and aristocratic in structure. (This is also refreshing by using standards of the time and not applying standards of the current moment.) He sets the context of the Midwest achievements that follow against the rest of the world to fully demonstrate how extraordinary in achievement it was. The Ordinance was a true break from Europe that promoted egalitarianism over aristocratic privilege, and proved to be a huge draw to immigrants from Europe, especially Germany, who were seeking a life free of those strict controls. The Ordinance shaped the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. Other Midwest sites like Iowa followed its framework. Key elements focused on freedom of religion, prohibition of slavery, and the strong encouragement of education. This laid a larger, cultural framework of civic obligations, economic, entrepreneurial, ideals, free, labor (anti-slavery), Victorian norms, and idealism about the country. For example, in the realm of education, state townships were required to set aside a certain number of acres to build school houses and in another example in 1860 Ohio had 20 colleges some of them already co-Ed and racially integrated as opposed to north eastern states like Massachusetts which had for colleges none of which were integrated or coeducational.
Toward the end of the book, Lauck pushes back on the misperception created some hundred years ago by a Columbia University professor Carl Van Doren and others, that the Midwest was a dull and dreary place leading to a “revolt from the village“ creating a desire of its inhabitants to escape to more interesting places like New York.
Not only has Lauck told a story worth hearing especially now but it's a well written story told in an eloquent style--even poetic in moments -- making a pleasure to read. Further, the book is impressively, well documented and supported with hundreds of sources.
Lauck is by no means saying that the 19th Century Midwest was a utopia (it's called the Good Country, not the Perfect Country), but rather that it has many virtues that are worth remembering especially for the problems we face today. Something Samuel Johnson might say is worth a reminder.
September 11, 2024
I thought this book pretty entertaining, although when the reviewers here pointed out that Lauck does offer a lot of evidence for his various claims I couldn't disagree. I did get a tired of the "listing" in Clemont Eaton's The Freedom-of-Thought Struggle in the Old South and Kim Murphy's I had Rather Die, but it never bothered me here. Perhaps because Lauck's making different points it didn't seem particularly repetitious. Or perhaps I'm just more tolerant than average of someone supporting his case with a lot of details. Since Lauck is debunking ideas that have been popular for decades I think it reasonable for him to want to provide considerable and detailed evidence.
December 31, 2024
Did not finish- I read 120/204 pages but got bored. There are 132 pages of notes and references at the end which make the book appear much longer than it is.
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