The Middle West: Corn Belt and Industrial Belt United

Abstract

This paper takes as its starting point James “Pete” Shortridge's The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture to analyze the region's historical development. For Shortridge, national changes in the early twentieth century had enormous consequences for the region. National discomfort with the high rates of urbanization, industrialization, and immigration was managed in part by splitting the Midwest into two seemingly very different regions, one more western and agricultural/pastoral (Corn Belt) and the other more eastern and industrial (Industrial Belt). I argue that healing this split is the key to region's future development. During the Midwest's early expansionist period agriculture and industry were closely tied and mutually beneficial. Their ties and locations remained and remain close, despite a rhetoric of distance and difference. As both Corn and Industrial Belts face ongoing demographic and economic decline, resurrecting their linkages and using them as a way of reinventing American landscape seems like a fruitful approach.

Keywords:

• Midwest
• Corn Belt
• Industrial Belt
• restructuring

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Deborah E. Popper

Deborah E. Popper is Professor of Geography at the College of Staten Island and Graduate Center, City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard-2N-234, Staten Island, NY 10314. Phone: [phone]