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Vignettes by writers engaging with prominent and obscure Midwestern locales How do the stories we tell about Midwestern places influence or reflect our experiences? How is the literature of a place or a region relevant to the people who live there? In this expansive anthology, Andy Oler collects 72 original short essays by a diverse array of ......
Winner of an Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award Though not blind to Abraham Lincoln's imperfections, Black Americans long ago laid a heartfelt claim to his legacy. At the same time, they have consciously reshaped the sixteenth president's image for their own social and political ends. Frederick Hord and Matthew D. Norman's anthology explores ......
The Raucous World of 19th-Century Challenge Dancing
The remarkable story of a Black-Irish dance and its rival champions During the tumultuous years before the Civil War, Irish American John Diamond and African American William Henry Lane, known as Juba, became internationally famous as competitors in the art and sport of challenge dancing. April F. Masten's dual biography reconstructs the lives ......
Faith and College Football in Twentieth-Century America
The game's surprising influence on Christianity in the United States From the game's early days, college football and a strain of muscular Christianity built a mutually reinforcing culture that taught lessons in America's dominant religious, gendered, and racial belief systems. Christians of many denominations embraced the game to shape and ......
Mexican Americans Bridging the Rural-Urban Experience
Shaping a distinctive Midwestern form of Mexicano identity Mexicanos in Michigan and across the Midwest share a common experience: living as largely invisible outsiders as they struggled to build vibrant communities in places that wanted their labor but not their presence. Brett Olmsted ranges from the 1920s to the 1970s as he analyzes how ......
Technology translation as a framework for understanding tech flows today, and tomorrow How do we explain China's tech rise in Africa? As Africa's top phone seller, the Shenzhen-based company Transsion has profoundly shaped the continent's digital transformation by providing affordable yet feature-rich mobile phones for the economically ......
Faith and College Football in Twentieth-Century America
The game's surprising influence on Christianity in the United States From the game's early days, college football and a strain of muscular Christianity built a mutually reinforcing culture that taught lessons in America's dominant religious, gendered, and racial belief systems. Christians of many denominations embraced the game to shape and ......
Mexican Americans Bridging the Rural-Urban Experience
Shaping a distinctive Midwestern form of Mexicano identity Mexicanos in Michigan and across the Midwest share a common experience: living as largely invisible outsiders as they struggled to build vibrant communities in places that wanted their labor but not their presence. Brett Olmsted ranges from the 1920s to the 1970s as he analyzes how ......
