Iowa Books

This book does an amazing job of telling the story that is Iowa with amazing pictures and an insightfull bit of writing as well. Mr. Kurtz has hit the nail on the head in this one. Very Well written and the Most beautiful you will ever see.

I love this WPA series, and the Iowa one is about the best. Iowa is the Hawkeye State. The Iowa Guide is sponsored by The State Historical Society of Iowa. By 1930 almost one third of the children born in Iowa were living elsewhere.

The real Iowa is the great central region. Iowa has a larger total acreage of grade one agricultural land than any other state. With the first settlers, education was a primary interest. Small colleges were built before the railroads.

The first inhabitants of Iowa were actually the mound builders. More than ten thousand mounds have been found in Iowa. When the guide was written in 1938, there were six hundred eighty private and public archeological museums in the state.

Noted men who crossed the Iowa country during the first decades of the nineteenth century included George Catlin, the painter, and John J. Audubon. Dubuque was founded in 1833, Davenport in 1836. Dubuque has a more European, a more settled appearance than some of the other Iowan cities.

In 1838 the Territory of Wisconsin was divided to create the Territory of Iowa. Iowa was admitted to the Union in 1846. After statehood, Burlington, Davenport, and Muscatine grew rapidly. Iowa Wesleyan College, Grinnell College, and the State University at Iowa City were founded in the 1840's. Upper Iowa University began instruction in 1857. In 1858 Iowa State College was established at Ames.

1850-1870 was the busiest time for the construction of railroads. Around 1868 the Grange movement began. The organization existed to counter the influence of the railroads and to, in a sense, regulate them. In 1938 no geographical location in Iowa was more than twelve miles in distance from a railroad. The railroad lines existed to serve the interests of the farmers and the manufacturers of the state. Towns were frequently situated where grain elevators, (part of the farmers' cooperative movement), and railroad depots were built.

In the Civil War the state furnished forty eight regiments of infantry, nine regiments of cavalry, and four batteries of artillery. Nearly eighty thousand men were enlisted. Drake University was founded in Des Moines in 1881. In 1870 the population exceeded a million and by 1880 it had increased by fifty percent. In 1884 Iowa became a dry state.

Iowa's population is a blending of many elements. A German religious communal group, the Amana Society, set up homes along the Iowa River and founded the village of Amana in 1855. Immigration peaked by 1890.

1907 was the hightide year for newspapers. There were nine hundred thirty four. The outstanding artist of the state is Grant Wood. Anton Dvorak spent a quiet summer in 1893 in the village of Spillville, and perhaps composed some of the New World Symphony there. The name Des Moines is probably traceable to the mound builders.

There is a photograph of a covered bridge at Madison County. Winterset is the county seat. Independence and Summerset were suggested as names for the town. Bettendorf is an industrial suburb of Davenport. West Branch is the birth place of Herbert Hoover. Near Creston is the site of an Icarian Community. Substantial farming information is contained in the guide. It is delightful.

This is the only book in print on the Ioway Indian tribe, originally located in Iowa, and now in two branches, one in Kansas-Nebraska and one in Oklahoma. The first edition was hardback and published in 1979; this second edition is paperback and published in 1995, with a valuable NEW section about the modern Ioway. The updated version listed here has an additional and very useful chapter that brings the book up to contemporary times.

"This account is the first extensive ethnohistory of the Ioway Indians, whose influence -- out of all proportion to their numbers -- stemmed partly from the strategic location of their homeland between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. ...Beginning with archaeological sites in northeast Iowa, Martha Royce Blaine traces Ioway history from ancient to modern times. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, French, Spanish, and English traders vied for the tribe's favor and for permission to cross their lands. The Ioways fought in the French and Indian War in New York, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, but ultimately their influence waned as they slowly lost control of their sovereignty and territory. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Ioways were separated in reservations in Nebraska, Kansas, and Indian Territory [Oklahoma]. A new preface by the author carries the story to modern times and discusses the present status of and issues concerning the Oklahoma and the Kansas and Nebraska Ioways." [From the book cover]

This is an essential book for members of the tribe, for those researching the Ioway's history and culture, and for anyone interested in the history and landscape of the American Midwest. Some have remarked the book is a bit academic in its approach rather than aimed at the popular market. I am a member of the Ioway tribe myself, and am a scholar of our language, history, archaeology, and culture, and I highly recommend it.
Every Iowa tribal member should have a copy of this book, as well as anyone else interested in Iowa history!

Ellen FitzSimmons Steinberg literally tripped over a collection of Irma Rosenthal Frankenstein's diaries in a Southern Illinois used bookstore where they had languished for years (Happily today they are now in the collections of the Chicago Jewish Archives). She weaves together a delightful biography of a woman who hadn't thought herself important; and yet Irma corresponded with Carl Sandburg and partook in nature walks with Jen Jensen and the likes of Laredo Taft. She was a mother and a middle class housewife who took time from her day to keep a diary. Her notes are invaluable glimpses into the past of a city on the make, and from the time of the great Chicago fire to the post World War period.

At age 88 when most women have resigned themselves, Irma Rosenthal Frankenstein was an active part of a grass roots movement to save the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as a National Park. She published a story about an outing to the dunes she had taken many years before in November 1917, and back when the movement to save the dunes as a park from Gary to Michigan City was in its infancy.

Alas the movement to save the Indiana dunes was tabled with the outbreak of WWI. The slogan `First Save the Country then Save the Dunes' was a battle cry that was forgotten as soon as the war ended and after a tiny state park was established in 1923. By mid century with Big Business about to gobble up the most precious part of the remaining un-saved dunes, several ladies from Ogden Dunes began an effort to rescue the enchanting bald and forest covered sand hills, and that had from time immemorial been a beach retreat for Chicagoans who lived up the lakeshore and across the state line in Illinois.

It was during this last big push to save the lakeshore dunes that in1958, the widow of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who had suffered a heart attack and from her hospital bed in Chicago orchestrated the publication of "The Chronicle of the Befogged Dune Bugs." Her adventure story became a fundraiser for the Save the Dunes Council; the group that battled the big steel companies and other intimidating interests in the halls of Congress. After several years the ladies won the war, when Congress established the creation of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in November 1966 but in the battle had lost the most important part of the dunes. Irma had also died the previous January 1966.

Her interesting life story lives on because of the good fortune of a contemporary who stumbled onto her notes and charitably published a story Irma had always hoped to.

Trent D. Pendley, President, Indiana Jewish Historical Society

It's been a few years after this book was published, and I still come back to it with the kind of fervency it originally called up in me. Why? Because it's prayer where "No church utters up." Because Wilson rewrites W.C. Williams' dictum, "No ideas but in things," to read "All my material/idea." Because its crush of diction and alliteration-- how the latinate and vernacular are woven together through consonance and assonance--thrills the ear and mind simultaneously: "when you've turned yourself/out I'll come to//perennial/paresthesias//the cosmos all//obviate." Because, in a way unique in contemporary letters, the spiritual, natural and moral all meet here fitfully in "unquiet/country," in a poetry of the natural world that makes nature neither pure solace nor utterly alien, but, much like Wilson's conception of God, it is, heartbreakingly, "Unknown but you are." Because of the uncertainty inherent in this world view, the voice of this book is often "Pinched to the far wrong side of pleasure," caught in the line-break between doubt and faith, observation and emotion--and each time I read the book, I learn from this struggle: "Let the good I am bide a little longer."

A Kind Of Fate: Agricultural Change In Virginia, 1861-1920 surveys farming in Virginia through the experiences of Jacob Manning and his son James. We read about their individual struggles, the impact of the Civil War, contrasts between farming and country life, Jacob having to farm through the harsh times of the Civil War, his son James farming experiences during a post-war time of rising prosperity. Author Terry Sharrer (curator of health sciences at the Smithsonian Institutions, Washington, D.C.) focuses on the changes in agriculture and its shift from crop-focused to livestock-dominated farming. Highly recommended, scholarly, worthwhile and informative reading, A Kind Of Fate is a superbly written and presented American regional and agricultural history

As far as I know, this is the FIRST history of the family garden, also known as the "kitchen" garden and its evolution from a purely practical, food garden to community gardens, self-help programs, etc. From Thomas Jefferson to modern day gardening, this book has it all! Great read, wonderful find for gardeners.

This is a catalogue of Lasansky prints : 1933-1973, compiled by John Thein and Phillip Lasansky under the direction of Mauricio Lasanksy. Profusely illustrated with both color and black and white prints.

The Iowa story was written to cover the 2 years missing from The Little House series. It is very interesting and includes clear photos. Before this book, very little was known about this period of time. This was after the Ingalls family moved from Walnut Grove. They would return to Walnut Grove 2 years later. In that 2 years they lost their son and had a daughter (Grace Ingalls). Mary also returned to Iowa after she became blind to attend the college for the blind. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Little House.

This book is divided into four major sections -- one for each season. Included are real, accessible plants and animals to study in each season with discussion questions and labs for each.

The back of the book states: This unique science manual takes students out of the classroom and on location to learn about organisms from personal experience in everyday surroundings. It sparks curiosity and provides a vehicle for a lifetime of learning about the wonders of the world.

Offers more than 75 on site science activities involving common plants and animals. The labs which may be completed in 45-50 minutes or extended over several days are arranged according to the seasons of the year.

Charlotte Mason would approve!