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AUTHOUGH recent history has always been difficult to write, with major challenges presented by lack of perspective and of source materials, American historians have usually jumped eagerly into contemporary subject matter, even when it proves to be as slippery and alive as a Minnesota walleye. In writing recent state history, however, scholars have been less venturesome than in other fields. For most of the American states there exist detailed treatments of the early beginnings but only sketchy outlines of their 20th-century past, especially the decades since 1945. Now comes Minnesota with a serious challenge to the other 49 states. In separate essays, 17 scholars grab for the slippery fish in the deep lakes of recent Minnesota history. The essays do not avoid controversial subject matter or shy away from the darkness of the recent past but instead range heroically over the social, economic, political, and cultural history of 20th-century Minnesota. This large volume begins with editor Chfford E. Clark, Jr.'s introduction, which assesses Minnesota's image as an innovative, forward-looking state and suggests that there is some reality to be discovered in the myths of Lake Wobegon. Thomas J. Baerwald's essay shows how people have modified the landscape of farms, forests, mines and cities. John R. Borchert traces the evolution the state's urban network, while Thomas Harvey assesses the special place of small towns, and David L. Nass writes about life in rural Minnesota. Arnold R. Alanen provides a close look at the volatile history of the Iron Range. Three labor conflicts—the northern strikes of 1916-1917, the 1934 teamsters' strikes, and the Hormel strike of 1985-1986—provide points of analysis for Peter Rachleff. Kirk Jeffrey outlines the development of manufacturing, and D. Jerome Tweton studies the equally important business of agriculture. George S. Hage's essay traces change in newspapers, radio, and television. Daniel J. Elazar's treatment of the machinery of government shows the moralistic quality expected by 20th-century Minnesotans at state and local levels. John E. Haynes analyzes the state's pohtics, focusing on such distinctive movements as the Farmer-Labor party. In his history of Minnesota's Indian people, David Beaulieu tells an often tragic story but concludes with a hopeful suggestion that the hard winter is over and that Indians are now prepared to do more than just survive. Marjorie Bingham's essay on women pays particular attention to the state's tradition of energetic women's organizations. Clarke A. Chambers draws on his wealth of historical understanding to analyze the challenges in education, while Richard M. Chapman considers the vital and diverse patterns of religious belief and behavior. The last essay is Karal Ann Marling's informative and delightful look at leisure, seeking to explain cultural markers such as butter sculpture and the forms of "sly, shy humor" favored by Minnesotans. Seventeen essays, even essays as good as these, do not add up to a full history of 20th-century Minnesota, of course. This is not the carefully integrated, analytical, narrative history that Minnesota and all states need. Not all subjects are treated fully, and there are overlaps as well as gaps. Nor do all authors write from a uniform perspective or use similar method and style. Collections of essays are inevitably disjointed, but each reader of this volume will come away with large ideas, questions, and conclusions. For this reader the grand theme is simply stated: Minnesota is profoundly different. The state is surely unlike Indiana, for example, even though both are midwestern states. That Minnesotans are not Hoosiers, even

Minnesota in a Century of Change: The State and Its People since 1900