Books
Summary
"Who are the people called Hoosiers? What are their stories? Two centuries ago, on the Indiana frontier, they were settlers who created a way of life they passed to later generations. They came to value individual freedom and distrusted government, even as they demanded that government remove Indians, sell them land, and bring democracy. Down to the present, Hoosiers have remained wary of government power and have taken care to guard their tax dollars and their personal independence. Yet the people of Indiana have always accommodated change, exchanging log cabins and spinning wheels for railroads, cities, and factories in the 19th century, automobiles, suburbs, and foreign investment in the 20th. The present has brought new issues and challenges, as Indiana's citizens respond to a rapidly changing world. James H. Madison's sparkling new history tells the stories of these Hoosiers, offering an invigorating view of one of America's distinctive states and the long and fascinating journey of its people." (Amazon)
Reviews
"Just ahead of the state's upcoming bicentennial, Indiana University historian James H. Madison’s “Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana” provides a fresh take on the familiar but sometimes surprising stories of the people who settled, built and continue to change Indiana.Newly published by Indiana University Press and Indiana Historical Society Press, the book covers the history of Indiana from the Ice Age to the present, including topics ranging from the rambunctious politics of the 19th century to the importance of the auto industry to Indiana’s love affair with basketball." - Steve Hinnefeld, IU Bloomington Newsroom
"A reader averse to political correctness might dismiss Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana as yet another example of liberal academic revisionism. But author James H. Madison would no doubt argue that he is simply setting the record straight. And not just any record, but the record that Madison—the Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor of History Emeritus at Indiana University—has spent a long and distinguished career helping to compile.
In the introduction to Hoosiers (co-published by Indiana University Press and Indiana Historical Society Press, and released in August 2014), Madison explains that he set out merely to “update” The Indiana Way, his first comprehensive account of the state’s past, published in 1986. “But simply updating that book proved unwise,” he writes. “Because Indiana has changed. So has the knowledge of our past.” - Evan West, Indianapolis Monthly
"A reader averse to political correctness might dismiss Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana as yet another example of liberal academic revisionism. But author James H. Madison would no doubt argue that he is simply setting the record straight. And not just any record, but the record that Madison—the Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor of History Emeritus at Indiana University—has spent a long and distinguished career helping to compile.
In the introduction to Hoosiers (co-published by Indiana University Press and Indiana Historical Society Press, and released in August 2014), Madison explains that he set out merely to “update” The Indiana Way, his first comprehensive account of the state’s past, published in 1986. “But simply updating that book proved unwise,” he writes. “Because Indiana has changed. So has the knowledge of our past.” - Evan West, Indianapolis Monthly
Book Trailer
Summary
"Indiana: An Interpretation is arguably the best single book ever written about Indiana. First published in 1947, it has long been out of print. Although its view is that of the last forties, it is still relevant - and as accurate - today as it was when first issued. Divided into seven sections, it begins with the State Fair as a window on the state as a whole, and the covers the pre-Civil War background, the Civil War and its impact on the state, the golden age of the 1880s to 1900s, Eugene V. Debs, and the Hapgoods, the role of four influential and representative citizens, and the periods during and just after World War II. An important book for anyone interested in Indiana or in the larger project of defining the heartland of America." (Back Cover)
It is important to note that Indiana: An Interpretation has received a mixture of both positive and negative reviews since its first publication back in 1947. The following two reviews illustrate this stark contrast of the book's reception.
It is important to note that Indiana: An Interpretation has received a mixture of both positive and negative reviews since its first publication back in 1947. The following two reviews illustrate this stark contrast of the book's reception.
Reviews
"Without defining his terms, the author describes this book as journalism, not history; one man's interpretation of 'the Hoosier character, the Hoosier thought, and the Hoosier way of living.' He may refer to its lively, bouncy style and the hundreds of tangential anecdotes, or to the easy, free-wheeling pursuit of many ideas, movements, and characters to a conclusion or end which is disillusioning or lacking in the idealism or 'moral' thought necessary for school room histories." - Richard A. Cordell, The Saturday Review
"It is not a lovely book. It administers a shock treatment or, like Jove, hurls a bolt of lightning at the people of Indiana. The author strives to awaken Hoosiers to the revolutionary changes which the Industrial Revolution has brought, and to the existence of large masses of relatively uneducated people who are not qualified to decide problems of world importance and who can be whipped into a frenzied racial intolerance. Gone, as characteristics of the state, according to the author, are the neighborliness of the small town, the virtues of pioneer days, the democracy of the common man, in short, the Hoosier tradition. Perhaps, Hoosiers need to be awakened to the industrial character of their state. In this day of postwar reconstruction, they should be reminded of the disgraceful story of intolerance and hate which was written in the state after the previous world war. The critical treatment of local capitalists and labor leaders may also have advantages.
After the virtues of the shock or of the bolt of lightning are exhausted, the inadequacy of the book becomes very apparent. The author is not Jove. His work is not a 'sound' interpretation of Indiana as the publishers claim. Lacking is an evaluation of the good features of the state." - Indiana Magazine of History
"It is not a lovely book. It administers a shock treatment or, like Jove, hurls a bolt of lightning at the people of Indiana. The author strives to awaken Hoosiers to the revolutionary changes which the Industrial Revolution has brought, and to the existence of large masses of relatively uneducated people who are not qualified to decide problems of world importance and who can be whipped into a frenzied racial intolerance. Gone, as characteristics of the state, according to the author, are the neighborliness of the small town, the virtues of pioneer days, the democracy of the common man, in short, the Hoosier tradition. Perhaps, Hoosiers need to be awakened to the industrial character of their state. In this day of postwar reconstruction, they should be reminded of the disgraceful story of intolerance and hate which was written in the state after the previous world war. The critical treatment of local capitalists and labor leaders may also have advantages.
After the virtues of the shock or of the bolt of lightning are exhausted, the inadequacy of the book becomes very apparent. The author is not Jove. His work is not a 'sound' interpretation of Indiana as the publishers claim. Lacking is an evaluation of the good features of the state." - Indiana Magazine of History
Summary
"This volume provides an overview of Indiana history based upon primary and secondary accounts of significant events and personalities. It is meant to supplement more traditional narrative and analytical surveys of Indiana history. This rich treasure-trove of material includes work by William E. Wilson, Peter T. Harstad, George Rogers Clark, Chief Shabonee, Roger D. Branigin, Val Nolan, Jr., Emma Lou Haynes, Richard Lieber, George Ade, Howard H. Peckham, Dan Wakefield, and many more. Each selection is preceded by a brief, contextual introduction provided by Dr. Gray." (Back Cover)
Indiana History: A Book of Readings consists of the following eleven chapters.
Indiana History: A Book of Readings consists of the following eleven chapters.
- The First Inhabitants
- The Era of the American Revolution
- Harrison, Tecumseh, and Territorial Politics
- Life on the Indiana Frontier
- The Era of the Civil War
- Into the Modern Era
- The New Century
- Indiana Writers
- Hoosier Life after 1920
- War, and Cold War
- Recent Trends
Review
"This compilation has the virtue of exposing students of Indiana and midwestern history to the work of various scholars such as William E. Wilson, John D. Barnhart, Emma Lou Thornbrough, Rebecca Shoemaker, and Ralph Gray himself as well as to numerous facets of the Hoosier State. There are particularly interesting essays by Gray on the Wabash and Erie Canal, by John B. Martin on Indiana's late nineteenth-century gas boom, and by Elwood Hayes on the early development of the automobile." - Edward K. Spann, The Annals of Iowa
About Ralph D. Gray
In 2010, the Indiana Historical Society awarded Ralph D. Gray with the Eli Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the study of Indiana history as both an author and scholar. Gray has published many books about the state of Indiana and its history. Gray also served as a faculty member at IUPUI for nearly 30 years (Indiana History Society).
Additional Books...
Indiana at 200
By the Indiana Bicentennial Commission Hoosiers & the American Story
By James H. Madison |
Indiana to 1816
By John D. Barnhart & Dorothy L. Riker The Indiana Way
By James H. Madison |
Mapping Indiana
By Eric Mundell, Amy Belcher, Erin Kirchhoff, et. al The Native Americans
By Elizabeth Glenn & Stewart Rafert |
Indiana Legends: Updated
By Nelson Price Indiana Blacks
in the 20th Century By Emma Lou Thornbrough |