The Liberal Heartland

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>Over the last two decades the political narrative of the liberal coasts and the conservative heartland has become something of a truism leading many Democrats to write off much of the Midwest as a Republican stronghold. Today's polarized divide between rural and urban voters makes it easy to forget that things have not always been this way. </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>The Liberal Heartland</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)> is a powerful reminder that the American Midwest has a progressive legacy that rivals the coasts.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>Across twenty chapters </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>The Liberal Heartland</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)> traces the political history of this region from the post-New Deal period to the rise of the New Right and Donald Trump's right-wing populism. The contributors explore the way liberals and progressives across the Midwest fought for expanding environmental protection engaged in community activism developed a queer-labor coalition before Stonewall struggled for women's rights and representation in the Plains states opposed the death penalty and mobilized for Indigenous self-determination among other topics. In addition to well-known leaders like Harry Truman and George McGovern the book highlights lesser-known figures such as Lydia Cady Langer Mary Jean Collins Richard Hatcher Jim Jontz and Paul Wellstone.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>A companion to the 2020 volume </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>The Conservative Heartland</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)> </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)>The Liberal Heartland</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(68 68 68 1)> explores the history of the Midwest from a less-acknowledged perspective recounting often forgotten stories that demonstrate the importance of the Midwest for New Deal liberalism and various forms of left-wing politics. This is a long-overdue book that represents a fresh look at the American heartland.</span></p>