"Will it play in Peoria?" That question--only half-joking--hovers over everything from politics to television, an acknowledgment that the Midwest is perhaps the most emblematic regions of the United States today. Stereotypes both good and bad abound about Midwesterners, but in this incisive yet poignant book, John Jakle reveals a rich and telling portrait of the contemporary Midwest and its people. In engaging prose, Jakle chronicles his childhood and adult life in the Midwest interwoven with a look at the region's geographic and cultural history. My Kind of Midwest reveals that the region is more than just a group of "flyover states," as Jakle tells a engaging narrative that recounts his youthful explorations of the flourishing cities of Detroit and Chicago in the 1940s; the rapid growth and importance of gateway cities such as Omaha, Kansas City, and Cincinnati along the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers; and the integral role of tourism to Midwestern states' economies. An intimate and compelling narrative of one man's connection to the American landscape, My Kind of Midwest will be essential reading for all those with ties to the heartland.

The Nebraska Sandhills is the largest area of sand dunes in the western hemisphere, covering an area about as large as Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island combined. Unlike most dunes, the Sandhills region supports an astonishing variety of wildlife. Sixty million years ago the area lay submerged in a vast inland sea. As the land lifted and the waters receded, the sandhills were formed, built upon a sandy floor above a sandy basement. Paul A. Johnsgard's appreciation for the region includes its evolution, a process that continues today making a very special place, patiently shaped by water, wind, and time. Sometimes 450 feet higher than their sloping valleys, the hills themselves are almost entirely covered with plants that manage to survive on an unstable substrate and in a climate of merciless heat and cold. They provide homes and resting places for rare species and sustain the livelihoods of a remarkable variety of people. Though firmly established in science, this book is an extended love letter to the Sandhills region and its people, plants, and animals. Johnsgard is now in his third decade of research in the Sandhills. This Fragile Land lets others see what he sees, a land with a fascinating range of geological, biological, and ecological vistas. Paul A. Johnsgard is Foundation Professor of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Widely published throughout the English-speaking world, he has become a foremost authority on ornithology and bird behavior. His thirty-three books include Birds of the Great Plains, The Platte, Birds of the Rocky Mountains, Those of the Gray Wind, and Diving Birds of North America, all available from the University ofNebraska Press.

Charles Barron McIntosh has devoted a lifetime of scholarship to the history of human activity on Nebraska’s Sand Hills, the spare, beautiful land that occupies much of western Nebraska. From carefully deciphering Native American occupancy through rigorous analysis of thousands of arrowheads, to patiently combing through decades of courthouse land title transaction records, McIntosh has mastered the sweep of centuries of human interaction with the land. We learn how the land shapes humankind, far more than pride would have us believe, and we see that perhaps our real success lies in learning how to live with the land, rather than attempting to master it. The Nebraska Sand Hills reflects McIntosh’s lifetime of learning, reading, questioning, analyzing—in short, everything it means to be a scholar; seldom are these efforts so well demonstrated. His affection for this unique landscape is present on every page.

After her life as she knows it ends in heartbreak, Mary Rasmussen, a strong-willed and independent young ranch woman living in the Sandhills of western Nebraska, suddenly feels that everything she has believed in--God, her instincts, the land itself--has failed her. She abandons her cultural and emotional ties, succumbing to circumstances she thinks she is powerless to control. In a rash decision, she marries a conservative, patriarchal preacher who doesn't understand her, the ranching community, or anything beyond his own beliefs. Mary's inner turmoil builds as she comes to appreciate the gravity of her situation and the need to take action.