12-20-22 the good country

Historian Jon K. Lauck seeks to remember the 19th-century Midwest as a place of progress and democratic ideals in a new book called “The Good Country.” In his review, Associated Press’ Stephen Groves writes that the book champions the Midwest. From 1800 to 1900 it formed a bulwark against slavery, fostered education and led the nation with progressivism. But Lauck also acknowledges the Midwest’s racial failings in that time period. The book also hints at a present need for a resurrection of Midwestern democratic vitality, writing “the old Midwest could be a reservoir of idealism and hope if we knew its history.”