The Heartland by Kristin L. Hoganson

THE HEARTLAND is an American history written by Kristin L. Hoganson, the Stanley S. Stroup Professor of United States History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Here, Hoganson argues that “our assumptions about the heartland are so deeply rooted that they can withstand counter-evidence howling as loud as the prairie winds.” At one point, she describes the heartland as “a psychic fallout shelter in which to seek refuge from a changing and dangerous world. … America bound the center of their country up in myth.”  Using Champaign, Illinois as a starting point, she explores themes of “human mobility, border brokering, economic ties, alliance politics, geographic awareness, and homeland insecurities.”  Her chapters discuss displacement of the Kickapoo people, foreign university students in the early 1900s, and an agrarian society’s relationships with the larger world. THE HEARTLAND received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly. That second review says, “Hoganson's book will attract many scholars as well as general readers who like innovative, challenging history,” but are those the readers who reside there and who may fail to appreciate the Native American and immigrant heritage, the global ties and connections described in this book?  

Hoganson herself notes, “Americans persist in imaging a heart” and she made me think of a quote from Breakfast Served Anytime by Sarah Combs: “right at the place the country’s heart would be if it placed its hand across its chest to say the Pledge of Allegiance,” referring to Kentucky. That in turn, led me to recent work by the Rockefeller Institute on individual states’ balance of payments. Just look at Kentucky (third from the bottom) which pays in a little over 30 billion dollars and receives over 70 billion, for a subsidy of around 40 billion, roughly nine thousand dollars per person per year. Yet, when we have a dialogue about “handouts,” the recipients are often characterized as people of color, even though Kentucky is more white (88% vs. 64% nationally) and native born (96 % vs. 87%) - also less educated (22% with bachelor degrees vs. 30%) - than the country. Overall, there is much more immediacy regarding economic and political issues in titles like the award-winning Heartland by Sarah Smarsh or The View from Flyover Country by Sarah Kendzior. I frankly wonder to what extent ANY of us – whether we live in flyover country or not, really understand the heartland. Have we become too separated, too enmeshed in our own silos? What does that portend for democracy? Hoganson comments, “no wonder the heartland myth came to seem so commonsensical: its scaled up localness was far easier to grasp than the vast complexity of the real world.”

Books by Elizabeth Berg and Jean Thompson

Looking for a book by a local Illinois author? Try one of these:

NIGHT OF MIRACLES by Elizabeth Berg is a LibraryReads selection for November and a sequel to The Story of Arthur Truluv.  Typical of Berg’s writing, this is another gentle read with appealing characters.  This story focuses on Lucille (Arthur’s elderly neighbor and baker extraordinaire) and Iris (a new arrival in town, dealing with her own losses), plus a budding romance between the diner’s waitress and the taxi driver, and also a young family coping with a terrible diagnosis.  The small town inhabitants band together and Berg exudes optimism: “Never think winter will last when spring is equally inevitable.” I particularly like the Library Journal review: “Warm and satisfying as Lucille's cookies.”    

A CLOUD IN THE SHAPE OF A GIRL by Jean Thompson is a recently published novel set in the Midwest that deals with three generations of women and their regrets.  As such, it is a less happy novel, with Evelyn, Laura and Grace often hiding secrets as they cope with life experiences and obligations. Grace is the youngest, a college student striving for independence. Her mother, Laura deals with addiction – due to a hard-drinking husband and drug-infused musician son.  Evelyn is dying, discontent and bitter over unrealized career aspirations.  Together they offer a complex rendition of what Library Journal calls “thwarted dreams and dashed hopes.” A National Book Award finalist for The Year We Left Home, Thompson’s writing is masterful: “A parent’s death was a milestone.  It put you in a strange territory of fear, dread, ache, bewilderment.  It made you greedy to get back to your own life, and then you felt guilty because of your selfishness.”

Final Resting Place by Jonathan F. Putnam

FINAL RESTING PLACE by Jonathan F. Putnam is a historical mystery with Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas as two of the main characters. In fact, they oppose each other in a murder trial based on actual events from “the highest profile trial of the year in Springfield” where Lincoln (a Whig) defended a Democrat accused of murdering a political rival and Douglas (a Democrat) acted as prosecutor. What makes this mystery especially appealing are the numerous references to the very contentious Illinois election held on August 6, 1838, almost exactly 180 years ago.  It was fascinating to read about the raucous political debates, anonymous and abusive letters to the editor, influential newspaper coverage, and religious revival. Lincoln’s real life friend Joshua Speed narrates this story and comments at one point, “Life in the frontier town had been oriented around three nearly universal public institutions: Politics, Commerce and Liquor.”

Although referring to a slightly later (1850s) period, a recent New York Times article by Jennifer Finney Boylan, “The New Know-Nothings,” draws some intriguing parallels to today’s political partisanship, especially changes in the Republican Party. Putnam, too, mentions this comparison in his historical note: “Those who think the current political moment is beset by unique coarseness and animosity would do well to study the American political environment of the nineteenth century, especially in the Western states such as Illinois.” If you enjoy historical mysteries based on solid research, definitely look for FINAL RESTING PLACE - it is filled with personal anecdotes, courtroom drama and political twists.

Putnam is a Harvard-trained lawyer and amateur Lincoln scholar who has written two other books in this series: These Honored Dead and Perish from the Earth.  Once you have enjoyed those, consider Girl in Disguise and the Seneca Falls Inheritance series, excellent historical mysteries set in the mid-1800s.