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Riverside Chats

Historian Jon Lauck on Book 'The Good Country' and Contextualizing Midwest History

Image of the book cover "The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800–1900." The author's name, Jon K. Lauck, is in white text at the bottom of the image. The cover's background is an artistic rendering of a farm.
The University of Oklahoma Press
Jon Lauk's "The Good Country" posits that the Midwest was the most democratically advanced place in the world during the nineteenth century.

Jon Lauck is the author of "The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest." In this conversation with Tom Knoblauch, Lauck outlines his mission to establish a new historical discourse grounded in fair readings of the American past by locating a middle ground in the center of the country.

Lauck is the founding president of the Midwestern History Association, an adjunct professor of history and political science at the University of South Dakota, and editor-in-chief of the journal Middle West Review.

Courtney is back in her hometown after graduating from the University of Kansas in 2019 with degrees in journalism and film. While at KU, she was the arts and culture editor of the University Daily Kansan and had a summer internship at KCUR, Kansas City's NPR member station. She has three pet rats and has seen almost every Audrey Hepburn movie.
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