In this book, Burton W. Folsom Jr. studies the decline of laissez-faire by looking at the increased government regulation and new restrictions on individual liberty in one critical state: Nebraska. During the progressive era in Nebraska, the critics of laissez-faire promoted intervention in both economic and social life through the issues of railroad regulation and prohibition of alcoholic beverages. The state's major political leaders--William Jennings Bryan, J. Sterling Morton, Gilbert Hitchcock, and George Norris--had to take stands on the issues of railroad regulation and prohibition. The debate over these issues dominated politics in Nebraska through the progressive era. Folsom analyzes Nebraska's major political campaigns, who won or lost and why, and how the state's major immigrant groups responded to the economic and cultural issues.

History of Nebraska was originally created to mark the territorial centennial of Nebraska and then revised to coincide with the statehood centennial. This one-volume history quickly became the standard text for the college student and reference for the general reader, unmatched for generations as the only comprehensive history of the state. This fourth edition, revised and updated, preserves the spirit and intelligence of the original. Incorporating the results of years of scholarship and research, this edition gives fuller attention to such topics as the Native American experience in Nebraska and the accomplishments and circumstances of the state’s women and minorities. It also provides a historical analysis of the state’s dramatic changes in the past two decades.

With a foreword written by Professor Ludwig Narziss—one of the world’s most notable brewing scientists—the Handbook of Brewing, Third Edition, as it has for two previous editions, provides the essential information for those who are involved or interested in the brewing industry. The book simultaneously introduces the basics—such as the biochemistry and microbiology of brewing processes—and also deals with the necessities associated with a brewery, which are steadily increasing due to legislation, energy priorities, environmental issues, and the pressures to reduce costs. Written by an international team of experts recognized for their contributions to brewing science and technology, it also explains how massive improvements in computer power and automation have modernized the brewhouse, while developments in biotechnology have steadily improved brewing efficiency, beer quality, and shelf life.

At the center of American history is a hole—a gap where some scholars’ indifference or disdain has too long stood in for the true story of the American Midwest. A first-ever chronicle of the Midwest’s formative century, The Good Country restores this American heartland to its central place in the nation’s history. Jon K. Lauck, the premier historian of the region, puts midwestern “squares” center stage—an unorthodox approach that leads to surprising conclusions. The American Midwest, in Lauck’s cogent account, was the most democratically advanced place in the world during the nineteenth century. The Good Country describes a rich civic culture that prized education, literature, libraries, and the arts; developed a stable social order grounded in Victorian norms, republican virtue, and Christian teachings; and generally put democratic ideals into practice to a greater extent than any nation to date. The outbreak of the Civil War and the fight against the slaveholding South only deepened the Midwest’s dedication to advancing a democratic culture and solidified its regional identity. The “good country” was, of course, not the “perfect country,” and Lauck devotes a chapter to the question of race in the Midwest, finding early examples of overt racism but also discovering a steady march toward racial progress. He also finds many instances of modest reforms enacted through the democratic process and designed to address particular social problems, as well as significant advances for women, who were active in civic affairs and took advantage of the Midwest’s openness to women in higher education. Lauck reaches his conclusions through a measured analysis that weighs historical achievements and injustices, rejects the acrimonious tones of the culture wars, and seeks a new historical discourse grounded in fair readings of the American past. In a trying time of contested politics and culture, his book locates a middle ground, fittingly, in the center of the country.

ultimately elevating public opinion of his administration but falling flat in achieving the economic revitalization that America so desperately needed from the Great Depression. Folsom takes a critical, revisionist look at Roosevelt's presidency, his economic policies, and his personal life. Elected in 1932 on a buoyant tide of promises to balance the increasingly uncontrollable national budget and reduce the catastrophic unemployment rate, the charismatic thirty-second president not only neglected to pursue those goals, he made dramatic changes to federal programming that directly contradicted his campaign promises. Price fixing, court packing, regressive taxes, and patronism were all hidden inside the alphabet soup of his popular New Deal, putting a financial strain on the already suffering lower classes and discouraging the upper classes from taking business risks that potentially could have jostled national cash flow from dormancy.

In the final years of the nineteenth century, as a large-scale movement of farmers and laborers swept much the country, the United States engaged in an ostensibly anti-colonial war against Spain and a colonial war of its own in the Philippines. How one related to the other—the nature of the activists' involvement in foreign policy debates and the influence of these wars upon the prospects for domestic reform—is what Nathan Jessen explores in Populism and Imperialism. American reformers at the turn of the twentieth century have long been misrepresented as accomplices of empire. Rather, as Populism and Imperialism makes clear, they were imperialism's chief opponents—and that opposition contributed to their ultimate defeat. Correcting the record, Jessen charts the fortunes of the Populists through the nineteenth century's last decade. He shows that, contrary to the standard narrative, Populists remained powerful in West after the election of 1896; they only suffered their final political reverses in 1900 after being branded as unpatriotic traitors by their opponents. In fact, the Populists and Democrats in the West favored war with Spain for humanitarian reasons; some among them led the opposition to Hawaiian annexation and—as leaders of the anti-imperialists in Congress from 1899 on—the occupation of the Philippines. Jessen also addresses the little-studied "money power" conspiracy theory that explains a key element of the Populist worldview. This theory, linking European imperialism and the growing economic and political power of financiers, stirred Populist opposition to American imperialism as well. Populism and Imperialism revises a critical chapter in US history and offers lessons for the present as well as insights into the nation's past.

Governors and the Progressive Movement is the first comprehensive overview of the Progressive movement’s unfolding at the state level, covering every state in existence at the time through the words and actions of state governors. It explores the personalities, ideas, and activities of this period’s governors, including lesser-known but important ones who deserve far more attention than they have previously been given. During this time of greedy corporations, political bosses, corrupt legislators, and conflict along racial, class, labor/management, urban/rural, and state/local lines, debates raged over the role of government and issues involving corporate power, racism, voting rights, and gender equality—issues that still characterize American politics. Author David R. Berman describes the different roles each governor played in the unfolding of reform around these concerns in their states. He details their diverse leadership qualities, governing styles, and accomplishments, as well as the sharp regional differences in their outlooks and performance, and finds that while they were often disposed toward reform, governors held differing views on issues—and how to resolve them. Governors and the Progressive Movement examines a time of major changes in US history using relatively rare and unexplored collections of letters, newspaper articles, and government records written by and for minority group members, labor activists, and those on both the far right and far left. By analyzing the governors of the era, Berman presents an interesting perspective on the birth and implementation of controversial reforms that have acted as cornerstones for many current political issues. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of US history, political science, public policy, and administration.