Look at how the majority of the most geographically racially segregated cities in the US are Northern – Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis,…
The Black population in all of those arrived as part of the two Great Migrations between 1910 and 1970. Millions of Black people moved out of the South looking for opportunities in the growing industrial cities in northern states. Unsurprisingly, they established neighborhoods and communities of their own. The patterns set then continue today.
When I was in high school I poked through some of the historical patterns in Omaha, NE. Successive waves of immigration each started in South Omaha, centered on the large stockyards: Irish, Black, Italian, and Central/Eastern Europeans. As second- and third-generation kids left that area, they scattered all over Omaha. Except Blacks, who stuck together in the Near North Side.
2025-10-20 16:18:42
Somewhat related to the grain thing was the difference in public opinion about the war in Iowa as you went from SE (the longest settled) to the NW (still very much frontier). The last Indian raid in Iowa occurred in 1861. Eastern Iowa sent a high per-capita number of Union soldiers. The prevailing attitude in NW Iowa was that the war was a distraction and we should let the Confederacy go so the Army could get back to its real job of exterminating the Indians.
Mrs. Helkins' 5th-grade Iowa history class was... unusual.
2025-10-19 21:29:14
I don't know why they run the trucks-in-the-mountains ads in the rest of the country. In the 11-state contiguous western states, the vast majority of the population lives in urban/suburban areas but can drive to the mountains in less than an hour.
I've long said that the proper picture to represent the modern West should look like this. In this case San Francisco, and the snow is rarer in Las Vegas and Phoenix, but it still happens occasionally even there. Now that the Census Bureau has admitted it's the 21st century and we can do density based on actual built area rather than county area, the western region is very narrowly denser than the Northeast, and both are much denser than the Midwest and South.
2025-10-19 16:38:00
The question would seem to be: why is it Southern rural culture which is the model? Why not the Midwest? Or the Mountain West?
The South put enormous effort into creating the whole Lost Cause myth, and as part of that emphasized lots of cultural signals: the accent, the cuisine, the whole "southern hospitality" thing. Outside of some cities, the Midwest "accent" is all about not being able to tell where someone is from. The Mountain West is even more so. Southern fried chicken. BBQ. Grits. Greens. Black-eyed peas. All sorts of Cajun. Wash day beans. Buttermilk biscuits. Cornbread as a routine thing.
2025-10-19 13:20:22
One piece of economics related to the Civil War, and being from Illinois Lincoln was very much aware of it, was shipping on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. By 1860, farmers from Ohio through the eastern parts of Iowa produced large amounts of excess grain. The bulk of the excess went down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the ports around New Orleans, and by ship from there. Those farmers were very much afraid a separate Confederacy would impose large transit fees and ruin their business.
During the debates in Parliament on whether Britain should enter the American Civil War -- and on which side -- much was made of exactly how dependent Britain was on grain imported from those states, and that there were no alternate sources.
Look at how the majority of the most geographically racially segregated cities in the US are Northern – Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis,…
The Black population in all of those arrived as part of the two Great Migrations between 1910 and 1970. Millions of Black people moved out of the South looking for opportunities in the growing industrial cities in northern states. Unsurprisingly, they established neighborhoods and communities of their own. The patterns set then continue today.
When I was in high school I poked through some of the historical patterns in Omaha, NE. Successive waves of immigration each started in South Omaha, centered on the large stockyards: Irish, Black, Italian, and Central/Eastern Europeans. As second- and third-generation kids left that area, they scattered all over Omaha. Except Blacks, who stuck together in the Near North Side.
Somewhat related to the grain thing was the difference in public opinion about the war in Iowa as you went from SE (the longest settled) to the NW (still very much frontier). The last Indian raid in Iowa occurred in 1861. Eastern Iowa sent a high per-capita number of Union soldiers. The prevailing attitude in NW Iowa was that the war was a distraction and we should let the Confederacy go so the Army could get back to its real job of exterminating the Indians.
Mrs. Helkins' 5th-grade Iowa history class was... unusual.
I don't know why they run the trucks-in-the-mountains ads in the rest of the country. In the 11-state contiguous western states, the vast majority of the population lives in urban/suburban areas but can drive to the mountains in less than an hour.
I've long said that the proper picture to represent the modern West should look like this. In this case San Francisco, and the snow is rarer in Las Vegas and Phoenix, but it still happens occasionally even there. Now that the Census Bureau has admitted it's the 21st century and we can do density based on actual built area rather than county area, the western region is very narrowly denser than the Northeast, and both are much denser than the Midwest and South.
The question would seem to be: why is it Southern rural culture which is the model? Why not the Midwest? Or the Mountain West?
The South put enormous effort into creating the whole Lost Cause myth, and as part of that emphasized lots of cultural signals: the accent, the cuisine, the whole "southern hospitality" thing. Outside of some cities, the Midwest "accent" is all about not being able to tell where someone is from. The Mountain West is even more so. Southern fried chicken. BBQ. Grits. Greens. Black-eyed peas. All sorts of Cajun. Wash day beans. Buttermilk biscuits. Cornbread as a routine thing.
One piece of economics related to the Civil War, and being from Illinois Lincoln was very much aware of it, was shipping on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. By 1860, farmers from Ohio through the eastern parts of Iowa produced large amounts of excess grain. The bulk of the excess went down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the ports around New Orleans, and by ship from there. Those farmers were very much afraid a separate Confederacy would impose large transit fees and ruin their business.
During the debates in Parliament on whether Britain should enter the American Civil War -- and on which side -- much was made of exactly how dependent Britain was on grain imported from those states, and that there were no alternate sources.