Iowa: A Guide to the Hawkeye State

American Guide Series

by Work Projects Administration

The WPA Guide to 1930s Iowa is a panorama of the Hawkeye State as it was fifty years ago. Originally published during the Great Depression, The WPA Guide nevertheless finds much to celebrate in the heartland of America. Nearly three dozen essays highlight Iowa's demography, economy, and culture, but the heart of the book is a detailed traveler's guide, organized as seventeen different tours, that directs the reader to communities of particular social and historical interest throughout the state.
Rarely has so much information about a place been gathered in a single volume. This unique book, fit for the glove compartment or for a relaxing evening at home, is a special invitation to share in the richness and diversity of Iowa and its people.

Genres: Nonfiction

583 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

Reviews

[K.D. Hilt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the is for a research paper over the Federal Writers’ Project. It has tons of information and gives such an insight into Iowa’s past.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best WPA books I've read – great variety of chapters in the overview including Transportation and Communication, Social Welfare, Press and Radio, The Arts, and my always favorite, Literature; 17 cities featured in the Cities and Towns section, compared with only four in the North Dakota - A Guide to the Northern Prairie State and lots of Road Trips north and south as well as the more traveled east and west routes. Major routes included are US 6, 18, 20, 30, 34, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67.

The copy I have is a 1959, fifth printing of the original published in 1938, so nice to read it without the updates included in some of the other state guides. The eight page bibliography includes 18 titles in the literature section including the following which were all originally published prior to 1936.

Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich;
Grandmother Brown's Hundred Years, 1827-1927 by Harriet Connor Brown;
Stories of a western town by Octave Thanet;
Main-Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland;
In a Little Town by Rupert Hughes;
Prairie Gold by Iowa Authors and Artists;
Turkey In the Straw by MacKinlay Kantor;
Alice Marple's Iowa Authors and Their Works: A Contribution Toward a Bibliography;
As the Crow Flies and other books by Cornelia Meigs;
Vandemark's Folly, The Hawkeye, and The Invisible Woman, a trilogy by Herbert Quick;
Phil Stong's State Fair;
Ruth Suckow's Country People and
The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson.

Made Iowa sound almost like a place I'd like to live until I remembered I purposely left a hog-producing mecca in another state and the appeal of packing plants and animal husbandry holds little attraction to my vegan-self.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting historical book that still provides useful insights for trips within Iowa. I used it to help plan a trip from Mount Vernon to Clinton, Iowa, along the Lincoln Highway.