The Heartland- A Discussion with Kristin Hoganson

200 West Green Street,Champaign IL 61820

17 November, 2022

Description

After moving to Champaign a little over twenty years ago, Hoganson was struck by the gap between the histories she had been reading about the Midwest and the reality she found on the ground. She thus determined to get to the bottom of history and myth, taking Champaign County as her starting point. The deeper she dug into the making of the modern heartland, the wider her story became as she realized that she’d uncovered an unheralded crossroads of people, commerce, and ideas. But the really interesting thing, Hoganson found, was that over the course of American history, even as the region’s connections with the rest of the planet became increasingly dense and intricate, the idea of the rural Midwest as a steadfast heartland became a stronger and more stubbornly immovable myth. In "The Heartland", Hoganson drills deep into the center of the country, only to find a global story in the resulting core sample. Navigating the disconnect between history and myth, she tracks both the backstory of this region and the evolution of the idea of an unalloyed heart at the center of the land. Our November history talk will be held in Robeson Pavillion Room A at the Champaign Public Library.