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Minnesota: A History of the State
University of Minnesota Press, 2004 Cloth: 978-0-8166-0754-9 | Paper: 978-0-8166-3983-0 Library of Congress Classification F606.B668 2005 Dewey Decimal Classification 977.6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In an engaging and readable style, renowned historian Theodore Blegen takes the reader on a tour of Minnesota's development, from the geological events that shaped the land to westward movement to twentieth-century modernization. This second edition includes a concluding chapter by Russell W. Fridley that chronicles the impact of turbulent national politics and cultural changes of the 1960s and 1970s on the state, as well as an extensive reading list and detailed index. Minnesota is a concise yet comprehensive account of the state's progress, highlighting landmarks in politics, technology, the arts, and architecture. See other books on: Blegen, Theodore C. | Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI) | Minnesota | State | State & Local See other titles from University of Minnesota Press |
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Minnesota: A History of the State
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
by Theodore C. Blegen
University of Minnesota Press, 2004
Cloth: 978-0-8166-0754-9
Paper: 978-0-8166-3983-0
Cloth: 978-0-8166-0754-9
Paper: 978-0-8166-3983-0
In an engaging and readable style, renowned historian Theodore Blegen takes the reader on a tour of Minnesota's development, from the geological events that shaped the land to westward movement to twentieth-century modernization. This second edition includes a concluding chapter by Russell W. Fridley that chronicles the impact of turbulent national politics and cultural changes of the 1960s and 1970s on the state, as well as an extensive reading list and detailed index. Minnesota is a concise yet comprehensive account of the state's progress, highlighting landmarks in politics, technology, the arts, and architecture.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Theodore C. Blegen (1891-1969) was professor of history at the University of Minnesota and author of many books including The Land Lies Open, Land of Their Choice: Immigrants Write Home, and Norwegian Migration to America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Table of Contents
- 1
- LAND, WATER, AND TIME
- The spirit of place
- Minnesota's waterways
- Geological prehistory
- Climate
- Natural and man-made geography
- 2
- THE REDMEN THROUGH MANY MOONS
- Prehistoric man in Minnesota
- The Sioux and the Chippewa
- The meeting of Indian and European
- The Kensington problem
- 3
- THE FRENCH LOOK WEST
- European competition in the New World
- Explorations of Champlain
- Nicolet, Radisson, and Groseilliers
- French aspirations in America
- Jolliet on the Mississippi
- 4
- MINNESOTA AND NEW FRANCE
- Achievement of New France
- Expeditions of Duluth, La Salle, and Father Hennepin
- Perrot's forts and Le Sueur's “copper mine,”
- Charlevoix and Perrière
- La Vérendrye and Fort St. Charles
- The French and Indian wars
- 5
- THE BRITISH AND A LAKESIDE EMPORIUM
- British control of Minnesota country
- Jonathan Carver and his Travels
- Peter Pond and the fur trade
- Grand Portage and the North West Company
- French-Canadian voyageurs
- Decline of the British regime
- Underwater Research Program
- 6
- THE AMERICANS BUILD FORT SNELLING
- Beginnings of American exploration and control of the West
- The War of 1812
- Selkirk's colony
- Settlement of the northern boundary of Minnesota West
- Governmental jurisdictions in Minnesota
- The frontier defense program
- Life at Fort Snelling
- 7
- UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG
- Need for new explorations
- The Cass expedition
- Travels of Long and Beltrami
- Exploration of the Minnesota lakes
- Schoolcraft's discovery of the Mississippi's source
- Further travels and explorations
- Settlement of the northern boundary of Minnesota East
- 8
- TRIBAL FEUDS AND A FUR BARONY
- The treaty system
- Agent Taliaferro and Sioux-Chippewa warfare
- An expanding American fur trade
- Sibley and the American Fur Company
- Financial decline of the fur trade
- 9
- PREACHERS, WORD HUNTERS, TEACHERS
- Missionary work in Minnesota
- Among the Chippewa
- Among the Sioux
- Protestant writers and scholars
- Catholic missions
- The first settlers
- Founding of St. Paul
- 10
- “THE GREEN TREE OF EMPIRE”
- Establishment of Minnesota Territory
- Arrival of Ramsey
- Sioux land treaties
- Chippewa land treaties
- Settlement of Minnesota
- Growth of transportation and communication facilities
- 11
- BRAVE NEW PIONEER WORLD
- The frontier press
- Education
- Transportation
- Problems of living on the frontier
- Importance of agriculture
- Cultural heritage
- The Panic of 1857
- 12
- A STATE IS BORN
- Early political factions
- Rise of the Republican party
- First moves toward statehood
- Writing the Minnesota constitution
- Ratification by the voters and election of state officials
- The first “state” legislature
- Admission to the Union
- 13
- MINNESOTA AND THE CIVIL WAR
- The Republican victory of 1859
- The presidential election of Lincoln
- Attitudes toward slavery
- Outbreak of the Civil War
- Bull Run
- Conscription
- The battles of Corinth, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga
- Gettysburg, Brice's Cross Roads, and Nashville
- The war period in Minnesota
- Wartime growth and expansion
- Problems of reconstruction and readjustment
- 14
- THE SIOUX GO ON THE WARPATH
- Events leading to the uprising
- Basic causes
- Attacks on the Lower Agency, Fort Ridgely, and New Ulm
- Battle of Birch Coulee
- End of the war
- Reactions of Minnesotans to wartime horrors
- The demand for retribution
- Results of the war
- The Chippewa land cession
- 15
- POSTWAR CHANGE
- Political events of the sixties
- The Granger movement
- The politics of the seventies
- Railroading in Minnesota
- James J. Hill and the Great Northern
- Immigrant groups in the state
- 16
- WITH AX AND SAW
- The lumber industry in Minnesota
- Early lumbering centers
- Military land warrants and “stumpage,”
- Lumbering at its peak and the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company
- The lumberjacks and their folklore
- 17
- DUAL DOMAIN
- Growth of wheat farming in the 1850s and 1860s
- Influencing forces
- The Homestead Act and bonanza farms
- Diversified produce
- The migration westward
- Flour milling and industrial expansion
- Problems with spring wheat
- The middlings purifier and patent flour
- Large-scale production
- Concentration of mill ownership
- The Minneapolis Millers' Association
- Advances in transportation
- Leaders in the milling industry
- 18
- RED EARTH, IRON MEN, AND TACONITE
- Legend of “Mesabi,”
- The search for iron ore
- Budding industrial interests
- The Merritts
- Rockefeller and Carnegie, Hill and Morgan
- The Cuyuna Range
- The mining pattern
- New processes
- Men of iron
- Range towns
- Changing mining taxes
- Related industries
- Taconite
- The future of iron and taconite
- 19
- LAND AND IDEAS IN TRANSITION
- Agricultural readjustments
- New political leaders
- Agricultural organization and agitation
- Trend toward diversified farming
- The cooperative movement
- Agricultural information services
- Fruit growing
- Agricultural experimentation
- Tree cultivation and conservation
- Minnesota's economic transition
- 20
- EDUCATION MOVES AHEAD
- Education's role in Minnesota's progress
- The public secondary school system
- The parochial school system
- Growth of higher education
- Private colleges
- The University of Minnesota
- Problems
- 21
- TOWARD SOCIAL MATURITY
- John Lind and the transition to the twentieth century
- Correctional institutions
- Public health
- The Mayos
- Urbanization
- Labor organizations
- The Spanish-American War
- The Northern Securities case
- John A. Johnson
- Growth toward social maturity
- 22
- PEACE, TURBULENCE, AND WAR
- “The good years,”
- Developments in transportation
- The political scene before World War I
- Agrarian grievances and the Nonpartisan League
- Minnesota in World War I
- The elections of 1918 and 1920
- The farmer-labor upsurge
- Christiansen as governor
- The 1920s
- 23
- THE ADVANCING ARTS
- Music in Minnesota
- Painting and sculpture
- Architecture
- Landscape architecture
- 24
- THE THEATER AND THE BOOK WORLD
- The theater in Minnesota
- Growth of libraries
- Authors in Minnesota's early years
- Flowering of literature in the 1920s
- Later writers
- 25
- DEPRESSION, READJUSTMENT, AND WAR
- The economic crash
- The era of Floyd B. Olson
- The temper of the 1930s
- The rise of sports
- Prohibition and repeal
- “Resurgent Republicanism” and Harold Stassen
- Minnesota in World War II
- 26
- CHANGING MODERN SCENES
- Continued Republican domination and Luther Youngdahl
- Growth in population
- Technological developments and industrial growth
- Specialties of state communities
- Modern farming
- 27
- SOCIAL CURRENTS, POLITICS, AND PROBLEMS
- Modernizing of communications
- The changing rural scene
- Churches in Minnesota
- Birth of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party
- The Freeman administration
- Andersen's administration
- The election of 1962
- Problems facing the state
- “History is people,”
- FOR FURTHER READING
- INDEX
- “A STATE THAT WORKS”
- Fridley, Russell W.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
