Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815–1900

After the War of 1812 and the removal of the region’s Indigenous  peoples, the American Midwest became a paradoxical land for settlers.  Even as many settlers found that the region provided the bountiful life  of their dreams, others found disappointment, even failure—and still  others suffered social and racial prejudice.

In this broad and  authoritative survey of midwestern agriculture from the War of 1812 to  the turn of the twentieth century, R. Douglas Hurt contends that this  region proved to be the country’s garden spot and the nation’s heart of  agricultural production. During these eighty-five years the region  transformed from a sparsely settled area to the home of large industrial  and commercial cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and  Detroit. Still, it remained primarily an agricultural region that  promised a better life for many of the people who acquired land, raised  crops and livestock, provided for their families, adopted new  technologies, and sought political reform to benefit their economic  interests. Focusing on the history of midwestern agriculture during  wartime, utopian isolation, and colonization as well as political  unrest, Hurt contextualizes myriad facets of the region’s past to show  how agricultural life developed for midwestern farmers—and to reflect on  what that meant for the region and nation.