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“A combination of history, memoir, reportage, and lit-crit that taught me a lot about a region I’ve reported on. . . . Check it out.” ―James Fallows, The Atlantic
A Commonweal Notable Book of 2020
Finalist, Midwest Independent Book Award
Winner, Independent Publisher Awards Bronze Medal
What does the future hold for the Midwest? A vast stretch of fertile farmland bordering one of the largest concentrations of fresh water in the world, the Midwestern US seems ideally situated for the coming challenges of climate change. But it also sits at the epicenter of a massive economic collapse that many of its citizens are still struggling to overcome.
The question of what the Midwest is (and what it will become) is nothing new. As Phil Christman writes in this idiosyncratic new book, ambiguity might be the region’s defining characteristic. Taking a cue from Jefferson’s grid, the famous rectangular survey of the Old Northwest Territory that turned everything from Ohio to Wisconsin into square-mile lots, Christman breaks his exploration of Midwestern identity, past and present, into thirty-six brief, interconnected essays. The result is a sometimes sardonic, often uproarious, and consistently thought-provoking look at a misunderstood place and the people who call it home.
A Commonweal Notable Book of 2020
Finalist, Midwest Independent Book Award
Winner, Independent Publisher Awards Bronze Medal
What does the future hold for the Midwest? A vast stretch of fertile farmland bordering one of the largest concentrations of fresh water in the world, the Midwestern US seems ideally situated for the coming challenges of climate change. But it also sits at the epicenter of a massive economic collapse that many of its citizens are still struggling to overcome.
The question of what the Midwest is (and what it will become) is nothing new. As Phil Christman writes in this idiosyncratic new book, ambiguity might be the region’s defining characteristic. Taking a cue from Jefferson’s grid, the famous rectangular survey of the Old Northwest Territory that turned everything from Ohio to Wisconsin into square-mile lots, Christman breaks his exploration of Midwestern identity, past and present, into thirty-six brief, interconnected essays. The result is a sometimes sardonic, often uproarious, and consistently thought-provoking look at a misunderstood place and the people who call it home.
33 Reviews
4.0
Jacquelyn Thomas
Created 2 months agoShare
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Ethan Wiggins
Created 3 months agoShare
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“3.5/10
The author keeps to a 6 section (each with 6 sub sections of approximately 1000 words each) format in reference to the Midwest’s 6x6 mile grid from the land survey.
This is a cool idea but constantly it felt as though he would not be at the word count and ramble about his own personal life, twin peaks, or whatever else just to get to the word count. There are a few times where he is just listing stuff which made me roll my eyes as it was so apparent.
I found that to be a shame because within it, there’s a rich synopsis of the history of the Midwest (Native American displacement, the rail industry, industrial manufacturing, etc) that just gets bogged down by fluff.”
Matthew Andreacola
Created 5 months agoShare
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vickywoodburn
Created 6 months agoShare
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““This Midwest: central but unseeable, discussed but undiscussable, unignorable but ‘ignored.’” As someone who spent 22 years living in the Midwest, this book captured so many feelings that I never knew how to put into words. Being from the Midwest is such a contradictory experience. I simultaneously feel like the Midwest is the perpetual underdog, incessantly defending my hometown, yet also recognizing all of the opportunities that it lacks.
Phil Christmas attempts to address this convoluted, contradictory Midwestern experience in this book. Starting from the creation of the Midwest and traveling through the booms and busts of time to the modern landscape. Despite all of the hardships that the people of the Midwest have endured throughout history, there is a distinct Midwestern resilience that still leaves its people looking to the future.
I would recommend this book to all of my Midwestern friends and family who want to understand better the region we call home and what it means to be a “Midwestern.” However, I am just as apt to recommend it to my friends from the East and West Coasts, especially those prone to writing the region off as “flyover country.”
One of my favorite portions of the book is when Christman explores the idea of the Midwest as the quintessential American experience. I could summarize his thoughts, but the following quotes do so quite nicely:
“The Midwest is present in the minds of (some) Midwesterners as a huge blur, one that they lob descriptions at rather than describing. They claim big, vague virtues and accept big, diffuse blame. Their traits and virtues are simply those of people, of Americans. When they look at themselves, they see anyone.”
“Thus, Midwestern averageness, whatever form it may take, has conseqsuences for the entire world; what we make here sets the world’s template. And to innovate is to standardize; the new becomes the new normal and then just normal.”
For all that the Midwest both is and is not, it does hold a certain sense of optimism about its future that cannot be found elsewhere in the United States. The book doesn’t touch significantly on the impacts of climate change, but increasingly hostile environments elsewhere in the country are likely to cause significant domestic climate migration to the Midwest.
“The Middle West is America aged just right. It’s America in that golden moment we all look toward, when you’ve finally gotten yourself together but have plenty of future left to look forward to.””
Lindsay Lake
Created 7 months agoShare
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