This book has a great deal of really interesting history that I wasn't aware of but it does get tedious. With books like these, it really helps to employ a little humor or somehow break things up a bit more with visuals, short chapters, anything to keep the reader engaged. I did keep learning things but I really struggled to make myself keep reading it, never a good sign in a book. I'm afraid others will be put off by the author's political leanings (which match my own), making it a harder sell. If I only had one book on my kindle I would happily take up my time reading this and I know I'd learn a lot, but with hundreds to choose from this one consistently stayed at the bottom of my to-read pile on kindle. That's not to say it's not a good book, just that it's such a competitive, tough scene in quality nonfiction these days.

Besides being a Midwesterner, author Christmas also teaches college writing in the Midwest. Certainly he knows his subject. The book of essays is well written, and entertaining, covering a wide range of topics. The book may have interest to a limited general audience, but would find an appropriate home in colleges and libraries.

As a born and raised Midwesterner (Wisconsin), Christman does an excellent job in navigating what the "Midwest" means beyond the geographical sense. Through thoughtful essays, he delves into the economic, political, and social aspects that have impacted the area that many tend to overlook for the more flashy narratives of the coasts.

Early in the book, Christman quotes Willa Cather, "No one who has not grown up in a little prairie town could know anything about it." As someone who did and then moved away and has watched those outside those little prairie towns struggle to understand and describe them this is unquestionably true. However, in this book Christman comes about as close as anyone has to translating that understanding.

In a series of essays, he tackles the history, tropes, social and political movements that have defined or attempted to define what it means to be Midwestern. The book is at times a little messy and discursive, indicative perhaps of the difficulties of capturing the "collocation of moods or tropes, some of them contradictory" that he (correctly in my opinion) posits make up the Midwest, which is definable more as a state of mind than a geographical region.

Being from the midwest (Iowa), this was a very interesting and real read. This book is made up of fairly quick essays about the midwest discussing topics like history, capitalism, midwest literature, farming, Trump, climate change, preppers, infrastructure, & the future. The author is a great & funny writer & I would recommend this to any midwesterner or any one trying to understand midwest life/future.