The Loyal West: Civil War And Reunion In Middle America

Abstract

Today we are here to talk with him about his new book, The Loyal West: Civil War and Reunion in Middle America. Professor Stanley, thank you for joining us today. Matthew Stanley (MS): Thanks for having me Tom. CWBR: So, your book looks at what we think of today as the mid-west by examining the cultural and intellectual significance of place, race, and memory. So, we'll begin with place. Where was the middle west geographically? And how did it become a place in the American imagination before the Civil War? MS: Yeah, so the book is talking about the sense of region literally and how regions become sections. So, when I think of regions, I'm talking about a sense of common culture based on geography, kinship, commercial ties-things of that nature. What becomes the Midwest, which is a term that actually isn't in popular usage until the early twentieth century, begins as a the middle northwest first, as the west generally-but when I talk about the middle west, what I'm really talking, and I focus in on in my book, are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and what becomes the Midwest. These regional designations, are pretty fluid and pretty fast and loose. So, in thinking about the transformation from region into section throughout most of the book.