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Denison, Iowa: Searching for the Soul of America Through the Secrets of a Midwest Town
Reveals the layers of life in small-town Denison, Iowa, from the efforts of a Lutheran woman to teach English to Latino immigrant meat-packing workers, to the town leaders who struggle to save the town from economic problems.
- GenresNonfictionSociology
272 pages, Hardcover
First published September 6, 2005
2 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Dale Maharidge
24 books120 followersI'm a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. I've published ten books, including And Their Children After Them, which won the 1990 non-fiction Pulitzer Prize. The most recent is Bringing Mulligan Home/The Other Side of the Good War (PublicAffairs). Before that I released the paperback edition of Someplace Like America/ Tales from the New Great Depression(University of California Press), with a foreword by Bruce Springsteen.
My books are all thematically connected, I believe, rooted in my curiosity about America and who we are as a people. I've documented the economic crisis since the 1980s. For working people, there is no other way to describe it. If you want, check out the afterword I wrote for the paperback of Someplace Like America--I reported in Detroit for it and I found some very interesting things there that raises questions about where we are going as a country.
I spent the first 15 years of my career as a newspaperman, working in Cleveland and Sacramento. I also taught at Stanford University for 10 years, in the Department of Communication.
My books are all thematically connected, I believe, rooted in my curiosity about America and who we are as a people. I've documented the economic crisis since the 1980s. For working people, there is no other way to describe it. If you want, check out the afterword I wrote for the paperback of Someplace Like America--I reported in Detroit for it and I found some very interesting things there that raises questions about where we are going as a country.
I spent the first 15 years of my career as a newspaperman, working in Cleveland and Sacramento. I also taught at Stanford University for 10 years, in the Department of Communication.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 4, 2018
As a fan of several of the books that author Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson have collaborated on, I went into this book excited about reading about Maharidge's observations about small town life but came out disappointed.
Maharidge choose to live in Denison, Iowa, a former agrarian small town that has taken a blue-collar turn and has had a recent influx of Latino immigrants to work at the meat packing plants in the area. He frames Denison as a microcosm for other towns that are changing, often times unwillingly from the past to a uncertain future. During his year there (2004) he gets involved in city council meetings and volunteers regularly in a ESL class for Spanish speaking adults who want to learn English.
Despite it's lofty goals, the book didn't deliver for me. At times the narrative veers between first person and third person, which I found highly annoying, and then he would spend too little time on a certain subject and expound too much on another. Much too much was written about LM Shaw, the 17th governor of Iowa and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Theodore Roosevelt, who had lived in Dension. While Shaw was an important citizen who shaped Denison's past, Maharide then skipped describing community events in Denison's present. He briefly touches on the dying Donna Reed festival but doesn't write about other events throughout the year. Plus, sadly the photographs by Williamson of the town and residents didn't deliver. Two were taken from inside a car- I expected more than that from him.
Despite my criticism, the book did make me think, and included some compelling character vignettes. I live in a smallish town in the Midwest that was going through growing pains when my family moved there in 2000. The 2008 real estate crash stopped the town from expanding for a while, while our downtown is cute and does well. Other nearby towns aren't as lucky (well, our city council works hard- it's planning, not just luck) so I see Denison's problems especially in the town next door to us. While not perfect, the book was interesting and I definitely am still firmly a fan of Maharidge and Williamson! 3.5/5
Maharidge choose to live in Denison, Iowa, a former agrarian small town that has taken a blue-collar turn and has had a recent influx of Latino immigrants to work at the meat packing plants in the area. He frames Denison as a microcosm for other towns that are changing, often times unwillingly from the past to a uncertain future. During his year there (2004) he gets involved in city council meetings and volunteers regularly in a ESL class for Spanish speaking adults who want to learn English.
Despite it's lofty goals, the book didn't deliver for me. At times the narrative veers between first person and third person, which I found highly annoying, and then he would spend too little time on a certain subject and expound too much on another. Much too much was written about LM Shaw, the 17th governor of Iowa and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Theodore Roosevelt, who had lived in Dension. While Shaw was an important citizen who shaped Denison's past, Maharide then skipped describing community events in Denison's present. He briefly touches on the dying Donna Reed festival but doesn't write about other events throughout the year. Plus, sadly the photographs by Williamson of the town and residents didn't deliver. Two were taken from inside a car- I expected more than that from him.
Despite my criticism, the book did make me think, and included some compelling character vignettes. I live in a smallish town in the Midwest that was going through growing pains when my family moved there in 2000. The 2008 real estate crash stopped the town from expanding for a while, while our downtown is cute and does well. Other nearby towns aren't as lucky (well, our city council works hard- it's planning, not just luck) so I see Denison's problems especially in the town next door to us. While not perfect, the book was interesting and I definitely am still firmly a fan of Maharidge and Williamson! 3.5/5
July 4, 2017
The book had started strong to introduce this unique Iowan town, but ended up falling a little flat for my taste. I thoroughly read the first three quarters and skimmed the last quarter. I didn't care for the writing switches between the first to the third person point of view, nor some content of the writer's experience which seemed to lack something more relationally meaningful. It also seemed to get a little bogged down in historical facts.
However, I did learn more about the balance of life between the Latinos and Whites there and their culture differences and challenges. It is interesting to read of the strong divisions and hatred within the town and reflect in this upon a larger America. Truly Denison is a Latino town, but run by Whites. I visited Denison recently for one week and the culture described in this book is accurate and the book allowed me better insight. It would seem the town wants you to believe that it is dreamy and nostalgic with its Donna Reed and Wonderful Life connection, but that seems to serve a cover to some long, great struggle and ugliness.
I'd recommend reading this book if one has plans to or has visited the town itself.
However, I did learn more about the balance of life between the Latinos and Whites there and their culture differences and challenges. It is interesting to read of the strong divisions and hatred within the town and reflect in this upon a larger America. Truly Denison is a Latino town, but run by Whites. I visited Denison recently for one week and the culture described in this book is accurate and the book allowed me better insight. It would seem the town wants you to believe that it is dreamy and nostalgic with its Donna Reed and Wonderful Life connection, but that seems to serve a cover to some long, great struggle and ugliness.
I'd recommend reading this book if one has plans to or has visited the town itself.
November 1, 2016
It’s a mixed bag being the soul of America. You get to be a poem, a ballad even, but you’re also a depressing failure.
At least that’s how it goes for poor Denison, Iowa, the unfortunate subject of an unfortunate new book, Denison, Iowa: Searching for the Soul of America Through the Secrets of a Midwest Town. The authors, journalist Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for And Their Children After Them, about another writer-photographer team, James Agee and Walker Evans.
Maharidge and Williamson arrive in Denison—the birthplace of Donna Reed and where “It’s a Wonderful Life” is emblazoned on the water tower—with a burst of big-city condescension and purply, pompous prose:
“The town was a poem,” Maharidge writes, “a ballad in brick and mortar and slate and concrete and faded paint. But it was an anonymous poem to me, no different from a hundred other Midwest burgs I’d passed through that were monuments to a time gone, the cinematic reel stopped and held freeze-frame at the moment of my visit, then released in a march of continuing rot and crumble and failed aspirations.”
One doesn’t know whether to worry more about Denison or the American soul.
Read my full review here: http://bit.ly/2faoyDT
At least that’s how it goes for poor Denison, Iowa, the unfortunate subject of an unfortunate new book, Denison, Iowa: Searching for the Soul of America Through the Secrets of a Midwest Town. The authors, journalist Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for And Their Children After Them, about another writer-photographer team, James Agee and Walker Evans.
Maharidge and Williamson arrive in Denison—the birthplace of Donna Reed and where “It’s a Wonderful Life” is emblazoned on the water tower—with a burst of big-city condescension and purply, pompous prose:
“The town was a poem,” Maharidge writes, “a ballad in brick and mortar and slate and concrete and faded paint. But it was an anonymous poem to me, no different from a hundred other Midwest burgs I’d passed through that were monuments to a time gone, the cinematic reel stopped and held freeze-frame at the moment of my visit, then released in a march of continuing rot and crumble and failed aspirations.”
One doesn’t know whether to worry more about Denison or the American soul.
Read my full review here: http://bit.ly/2faoyDT
June 14, 2007
The town, Denison, Iowa, profiled in this book could have been my own hometown...or any other number of small, agrarian communities on railroad lines across the midwest. A really fascinating look at the sociology of the shift in demographics, and the subtleties of culture in a small community. Meticulous feature writing, done in book form. What I would expect of a talented print journalist.
March 27, 2022
An older book by now exploring the demographic and cultural changes taking place in the midwest, in this case Denison, Iowa. Maharidge moves to Denison for the year taking up residence in an apartment in a rundown former mansion. From this vantage point Maharidge looks at the growing number of immigrants, primarily from Mexico and central America and the impact they have on Denison. Some Denison residents welcome the new arrivals, others are aware that without immigrants Denison would be dying but even so the old timers don't much care for the new residents. Not content to just look at the current reality, Maharidge examines Denisons early history particularly when much of the town was made up of German immigrants, many who didn't bother learning English because they could read a German newspaper published in Denison, attend church where the preaching was in German, and patronize businesses where the proprietors spoke German.
Maharidge examines some of the economic changes bringing many of the immigrants to town. Much of this is centered around the meatpacking plants, the loss of unions and with it good paying jobs.
Maharidge captures well the resentment and fear of many of the white residents of Denison, feelings which helped fuel Trumps presidential run. Along with this Maharidge tracks the efforts of some city leaders to revitalize the business district as one way to keep the town alive. Despite the efforts the towns population declined from the 2010 to the 2020 census, so much like the rest of rural Iowa, small towns far from larger urban areas continue to decline in size.
After finishing the book I checked Varsitybound to see the Denison athletic rosters. The school has merged with a neighboring town. The varsity soccer roster was filled entirely with Hispanic names, the golf team has one Hispanic name, with the rest seeming to be mostly German names, while the track team has both.
This is an enjoyable book even though it describes a rather depressing subject.
Maharidge examines some of the economic changes bringing many of the immigrants to town. Much of this is centered around the meatpacking plants, the loss of unions and with it good paying jobs.
Maharidge captures well the resentment and fear of many of the white residents of Denison, feelings which helped fuel Trumps presidential run. Along with this Maharidge tracks the efforts of some city leaders to revitalize the business district as one way to keep the town alive. Despite the efforts the towns population declined from the 2010 to the 2020 census, so much like the rest of rural Iowa, small towns far from larger urban areas continue to decline in size.
After finishing the book I checked Varsitybound to see the Denison athletic rosters. The school has merged with a neighboring town. The varsity soccer roster was filled entirely with Hispanic names, the golf team has one Hispanic name, with the rest seeming to be mostly German names, while the track team has both.
This is an enjoyable book even though it describes a rather depressing subject.
April 6, 2020
I read the book because it discussed how a Midwest meatpacking town was coping with the influx of Hispanic immigrants. The book covers that topic, giving valuable insights into the thinking of the immigrants, as well the perspectives of the non-Hispanic population. In addition, the book deals with the broader history of Denison, its treatment of its German population during World War I, and how it has handled changes caused by economic pressures over the decades. The author is generally sympathetic in his approach to the town and its people, but there are a couple of digressions I didn't think were necessary. The book is a bit dated, having been published in 2005, but I found it a very worthwhile read.
September 17, 2020
There’s about a million fuckin town these sad sacks could have written about. Why this one? 2020 It’s still on the map, I guess rumors of its demise were exaggerated.
July 11, 2015
I picked up this book because I wanted to like the town of Denison, and yet I didn't. My first time through, as a fan of "It's a Wonderful Life," I was disappointed at how disinterested the town was in its star, Donna Reed. My second time through was a poor business week, coupled by a cellular dead zone. I'd tried twice to like Denison and it didn't work either time.
Maharidge's book, while not making me fall in love with the town, softened greatly my understanding of what Denison was, is, and is going through. I have a hankering to give Denison one more try...perhaps. Through his story telling, he showed why Reed is so muted, and even why there's a "dead zone," not for cell phones alone, but for other matters.
Maharidge's writing style was for the most part congenial and entertaining, though at times a bit raw. He showed people for who they were, as the cliche goes, "warts and all." His politics is obviously more left of mine, but it wasn't an agenda that distracted from the story.
There were a couple stylistic changes in the book I found distracting. Most of the time his writing was narrative of a man living in the town, but on occasion he wrote about himself in the third person, and I couldn't tell why. He also began the book with a broader historic event that I don't think he ever tied into the more specific story of Denison, except in chapter title allusions.
In addition to having a more sympathetic appreciation for Denison now, Maharidge also succeeded in earning my appreciation for him as a writer. I will keep my eye open for other works by him; I'd be interested in what he has to say.
Maharidge's book, while not making me fall in love with the town, softened greatly my understanding of what Denison was, is, and is going through. I have a hankering to give Denison one more try...perhaps. Through his story telling, he showed why Reed is so muted, and even why there's a "dead zone," not for cell phones alone, but for other matters.
Maharidge's writing style was for the most part congenial and entertaining, though at times a bit raw. He showed people for who they were, as the cliche goes, "warts and all." His politics is obviously more left of mine, but it wasn't an agenda that distracted from the story.
There were a couple stylistic changes in the book I found distracting. Most of the time his writing was narrative of a man living in the town, but on occasion he wrote about himself in the third person, and I couldn't tell why. He also began the book with a broader historic event that I don't think he ever tied into the more specific story of Denison, except in chapter title allusions.
In addition to having a more sympathetic appreciation for Denison now, Maharidge also succeeded in earning my appreciation for him as a writer. I will keep my eye open for other works by him; I'd be interested in what he has to say.
December 5, 2008
The author, who won a Pulitzer Prize for a previous book, sets out to explore the changes in a small rural town that sees its homogenous community descended from Western European immigrants, transformed as immigrants from South and Central America move in to take jobs at local packing plants, and Caucasian families leave the dwindling farm economy and increasingly low pay and dangerous packing plant jobs. Maharidge, however, never really gets beyond surface appearances and his own fantasies to develop real relationships within the community. While he covers a local arts festival, reveling snidely in the pretensions of small town "sophisticates," he is MIA for the county fair, Christmas, Memorial Day, the events that are the center of life for these types of communities. Interesting idea, failed attempt.
August 5, 2009
This is a rather bizarre (to my taste) book with no linear development, something along the lines of Stephen Bloom's book about Postville, though I think this author made a greater effort to actually listen to the voices of the people he was observing as he lived in the town for a year. Denison is a meatpacking town, & the main theme seems to be the changes wrought by the influx of Latinos into this dying Iowa town & how the town--especially its elites who are determined to find a way to keep the town alive--respond to those changes.
April 3, 2011
I heard it said once that there are only two stories: man comes to a town and man goes on a journey. Maharidge drops himself in the deep middle of "flyover" country, a town of 8000, Denison, Iowa, and explores it for a full year in all its warmth and pettiness and despair and sexual frustration and city council meetings and cultural conflicts. What is it like to live out on the plains in a small town in the mid-2000s? I found it fascinating, and a quick read.
December 4, 2007
How funny to glance at a bookshelf in the DC library and see a book named after a small town where my aunt lives! Of course, when I saw it, I had to read the book. In some places the story drags a little, but overall it was a good read. I wish he had spent a bit more time talking about the young man in Denison who restored old buildings.
March 10, 2009
Since I am from Iowa, I thought I should read something about what has been happening since I moved away more than 20 years ago. A big city journalist moves to Iowa for a year to explore the drastic changes taking place in the heartland of America. Are Mexican immigrants replacing the Native Americans driven out of this country?
December 23, 2013
I was attracted to this book because my son recently moved to Denison. I really liked the book because it was well written. The cultural changes that have and are still taking place in this small town are significant to say the least. Are they prophetic for the whole country? Do they reflect the attitudes of most Americans? Hmmm...
June 12, 2014
This book was not well written--there was a lot of disjointed information thrown in at random places but when I got to the end of the book, it all made sense and I understood why the author included the data he did. This is an unbiased look at a small town that was going through some cultural and economic changes that are at times devastating and enlightening.
March 10, 2013
This is a book that paints a portrait of - from what I can gather - the real Midwest at the turn of this century. Immigration, globalization, sense of place, politics, religion, everything. A very good sociological study of a meatpacking town in Iowa.
April 13, 2015
Very readable and engaging. I thought the author was a bit too much in the story for my taste. I'd have preferred more about the townspeople's stories than about his perceptions of their stories. But he's a pretty perceptive guy, so it still works well.
October 13, 2010
Interesting historical portrait of the changes in an Iowa town, and the economic strictures. As topical today as when it was written.
This is the type of book I really enjoy, american studies.
This is the type of book I really enjoy, american studies.
February 2, 2012
I'm sure that there are plenty of people around here (surrounding county outside of Denison) that will disapprove of me because they were offended by this book, but I'm really enjoying it so far.
August 21, 2012
Very interesting book about the town I live in. Gave me even a more understanding of this town I care about.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews