Illinois: A HistoryThe epic struggle between traditional, agrarian society and modern industrial capitalism was played out on the national stage as the War between the States. The same struggle between traditional and modern values split Illinois between "Egypt"--the southern region populated by yeoman farmers who came to Illinois from Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, and other southern states--and the Yankee-dominated, urban north. Richard J. Jensen treats Illinois as a microcosm of the nation, arguing that its history exhibits basic conflicts that had much to do with shaping American society in general. Northern reformers in Illinois were intent on remaking the state in their image: middle-class, egalitarian, urban, and progressive. These values clashed with the patriarchal supremacy and intense loyalty to kin and ken by which the people of southern Illinois, and the South, organized their lives. When the Civil War broke out, sympathy for the Confederacy ran high in southern Illinois. Although the region officially supported the Union, guerrilla bands terrorized Unionists, and in Charleston a full-scale riot against Federal troops erupted in 1864. The Union victory decisively shifted both the nation and Illinois toward faster modernization. Violence became more bureaucratized, and localism eroded with the onslaught of chain franchises, consolidated schools, and homogenized suburbs. Jensen extends his discussion to the emergence of newer, postmodern conflicts that continue to occupy the people of Illinois. Without neglecting the high-profile individuals and events that put the Prairie State on the map, Jensen offers an innovative, wide-angle view that expands our perspective on Illinois history. |
From inside the book
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... America P 54321 This book is printed on acid - free paper . Originally published by W. W. Norton & Co. , Inc. , and the American Association for State and Local History in The States and the Nation bicentennial series . Library of ...
... America's heartland , has for more than a century been a crossroads state . The nation's great transportation arteries - the Mississippi and Ohio rivers , the Great Lakes , the transcontinental railroads , the net- work of interstate ...
... America because its history exhibits basic conflicts that had much to do with shaping American society in general . Riots , strikes , heated election contests and personality struggles are relevant , but this book is concerned with a ...
... American South . This correlation did not hold in Illinois , where rural areas and small towns often took the lead . Today , for example , agriculture is the most progres- sive sector in the Illinois economy . The people of a state can ...
... American character . The advantages of seeing Illi- nois as a microcosm of the nation were appreciated as early as 1830 by one perceptive visitor , who reported that the inhabitants of the state " are a complete mixture of almost every ...