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The Liberal Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest
Paperback
20th Century United States HistoryGeneral Political ScienceRegional: Midwest
ISBN13: 9780700638659
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: Apr 29 2025
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.15
Height: 0.87 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Over the last two decades, the political narrative of the liberal coasts and the conservative heartland has become something of a truism, leading many Democrats to write off much of the Midwest as a Republican stronghold. Today's polarized divide between rural and urban voters makes it easy to forget that things have not always been this way. The Liberal Heartland is a powerful reminder that the American Midwest has a progressive legacy that rivals the coasts.
Across twenty chapters, The Liberal Heartland traces the political history of this region from the post-New Deal period to the rise of the New Right and Donald Trump's right-wing populism. The contributors explore the way liberals and progressives across the Midwest fought for expanding environmental protection, engaged in community activism, developed a queer-labor coalition before Stonewall, struggled for women's rights and representation in the Plains states, opposed the death penalty, and mobilized for Indigenous self-determination, among other topics. In addition to well-known leaders like Harry Truman and George McGovern, the book highlights lesser-known figures, such as Lydia Cady Langer, Mary Jean Collins, Richard Hatcher, Jim Jontz, and Paul Wellstone.
A companion to the 2020 volume, The Conservative Heartland, The Liberal Heartland explores the history of the Midwest from a less-acknowledged perspective, recounting often forgotten stories that demonstrate the importance of the Midwest for New Deal liberalism and various forms of left-wing politics. This is a long-overdue book that represents a fresh look at the American heartland.
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