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This history, which focuses on the economic and social history of Iowa, aims to prove that the location of this heartland state has a significant effect on the identity of its inhabitants. It takes the reader from 17th-century Native American habitation, to the sesqui-centennial in 1996. ... Read more

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Depicting the unusual going-ons in Iowa's capital city over more than a century, this study includes a variety of sources that showcase the famous, infamous, and even the anonymous - including Ronald Reagan, Billy Sunday, and a barmaid who served beer in a notorious manner. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

old windows, good stories
Most interesting as I had just come from the Iowa state fair and wanted to know more about the city. Will gift this book to a friend who lives there. Everything was fine with the book. Another great read is the Adventures of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson's work about his childhood in Des Moines, so "Looking in Windows" is a compliment. It's short articles that the author wrote about city history when he was working for the local paper (Register). It contains sometimes amazing Midwest frontier history. Of course many on the coasts deride beautiful Iowa and the Midwest in general while theocratic demagogues falsify and overblow its real or imagined values out of proportion to the reality of those who live there. This book brings it all down to earth. ... Read more

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This volume covers 150 years of Iowan history, from the days when there were no roads, to the conquest of the forests and prairies and the laying of towns and modern highways. The individuals whose adventures made the state are at the heart of each tale. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I.O.W.A. Native looks back
This book was in my parents library, and after their passing I ended up with it.

Like many of us idots out wandering around, I still call Iowa home. Many of the stories that were told to me by my grandparents and parents were written in this book. It gave a good accounting of incidents I had heard about but didn't know about.I also made margin notes of other incidentsthat I knew about but were not recorded, like the year Ike and Mamie visited Boone, and when Kruschev's motorcade came through Luther. I found the book extremely easy to read. I liked the way I could read a couple of pages at a time and still get the whole story. My favorite memory dredged up was the memory of THE MAGIC WINDOW. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Iowa history or just grew up in Iowa. It was fun to recall certain things and jot them in the margins. ... Read more

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Comprehensive treatment blends history and collection.
The book is very well proportioned for viewing stereographs which are presented full size and intact. Subjects and photographers are well indexed. Very pleased with my copy, an excellent companion to Darrah,Zeller, and Waldsmith. ... Read more

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The Historical Iowa Book Collection is a collection of 40 volumes relating to the history of Iowa and its people primarily in the 18th and 19th centuries. Several of the volumes have great period illustrations and portraits of relevant historical figures.Here are the computer requirements to run and operate this CD. You must have a PC running Windows or a Macintosh running OS X or higher software and a web browser. All the manuals in this disk are in DJVU format. This format allows you to page through the manuals, enlarge pages for better viewing and print the individual pages or entire manual as well as many other things. The viewer is very intuitive to use and has a full help system to answer any questions you may have about its more advanced features. The viewer is included on the CD. ... Read more

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This work recounts the lives and exploits of 110 significant Iowans, with brief biographies highlighting their achievements. They include Norman Borlaug, Simon Estes, Ann Landers, Dan Gable, Fred Maytag, Henry Wallace and Grant Wood. ... Read more

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Iva Agnes conyers grew up in Iowa in the 1890's. Orphanedat age eight, she suffered ill treatment and loneliness. Through hardwork, grit and determination, she overcame her circumstances andbecame a teacher. In later life, she wrote her memoirs, which havebeen revised and expanded by her grandaughter, Arden Iva Sleadd. Thebook relates the events of Iva's early life; the death of her mother;living with her Mormon grandparents; the remarriage of her father;their move by covered wagon to Kansas and Idaho; the death of herfather; and the heartbreak that followed. Includes brief memoirs byIva's children and others who knew her, along with her personalphotos.

Part Two of the book contains the Conyers family history, compiled byTerri Napoli. It contains over 3400 names of descendants, reflectingten years of research, and includes the accounts of two other Conyerspioneers: Enoch Ward Conyers and John Hiram Conyers. Other surnamesincluded are Hanscom, Hansen, Ballentyne, Hornback, Mitts, Mayfield,Vredenburgh, Horseman and many others. ... Read more

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Issued by A.J. Johnson in 1864, this maps shows both counties and townships in Iowa. The 32 eastern most counties in Nebraska are depicted, as well as Indian reservations, roads, trails, and small settlements in both areas. Black and white map, printed on 18 x 24 paper, folded. ... Read more

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1 of 2 volumes. 1978 reproduction of 1896 work. Originally published by the Lewis Publishing Company. Reproduced 1978 by Walsworth Publishing Co. Oversized hardcover. 632 pages. Illustrated and indexed ... Read more

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This lively book, now available in paperback, focuses on the women responsible for educating prairie children. Most were natives of the region, often teenaged girls away from home for the first time. Teaching under difficult circumstances, schoolwomen not only struggled to meet their students' needs but also used all the means at their disposalsummer institutes, normal schools, and even reading programs by mailto upgrade their own educational credentials. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Just before the war
On the strength of these very favorable reviews I got a copy of the book.What a disappointment!The photos are no more than snaps of life in the small town of Ridgeway, Iowa and of Everett Kuntz's family and friends.By the nature of this kind of photography many of the those in the book are soft focus, badly composed or just dull but of course this kind of material is precious and a keepsake to those in the photos but to others the significance evaporates.

I thought the book looked very unimaginative with far too much white space but even with the rather bland photos it did have the potential to sparkle.As a publication designer I would have created a scrapbook feel to the pages leaving the few really good photos as whole page images and the rest blending together with local maps, postcards, high-school yearbooks and any sort of household and commercial printed ephemera from the late thirties.

The sub title: Reflections of a small town in Iowa, 1939-1942, is true but it wasn't the photographer's aim to capture reality too closely.Iowa, with a large agricultural community, suffered terribly during the Depression.The poverty and desperation was covered by four photographers from the Farm Security Administration and their photos can be seen in Unknown Iowa: Farm Security photos, 1936-1941.The sixty-seven photos in the book capture rural and town life in a much more creative and heartfelt way than the bland snaps in 'Sunday afternoon on the porch'.


***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

Sunday Afternoon on the Porch: Reflections of a Small Town in Iowa, 1939-1942
As the front porch picture on the cover suggest a simpler slower time for life in America. Great pictures! Would recommend this book to people of any age. All of the pictures have a story of their own and you can put yourself in their shoes with just a little imagination. Buy this book you won't regret it.

If a look at small town life between 1939 and 1942 sounds good to you, don't pass this up.
The pictures were taken between 1939 and 1942 and show what small town and farm life was like in that era. I do wish that there were more pictures in the book, but if you want a look at life during that era, this would be a good addition to your library.

A wonderful gift book, especially recommended for connoisseurs of historic slice-of-life American photography
Sunday Afternoon on the Porch: Reflections of a Small Town in Iowa 1939-1942 is a wonderful showcase of black-and-white photography capturing the ordinary men and women of small town Iowa in the wake of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. The candid photographs range from "On Duty", an unforgettable snapshot of a uniformed officer with one hand on a baby's stroller, to "Cheerful Classmates", capturing a happy day in school, to "Migrant's Salon" showing a man getting his hair washed by leaning over a bowl while a bucket of water is poured over his head, and more. The text offers additional insight into these timeless glimpses of day-to-day life, as well as some snippets of poetry. A wonderful gift book, especially recommended for connoisseurs of historic slice-of-life American photography.

A Wonderful Glimpse into our Past
This book is fun..besides getting a glimpse into a nicer time, you get an insight of the man who took this amazing spontaneous photos. Also some facts. I hope there is another book published with more photos. ... Read more

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An Iowa Album invites you to travel through sixty years of Iowa history and view the state in its turn-of-the-century glory. This engaging selection of more than 375 photographs, taken from the immense collection of the State Historical Society of Iowa, combined with the firsthand accounts that speak from the past, provides a portrait of Iowa from an era when small towns and rural communities dominated life in the state. The beauty and power of the historical images and the voices that continue to speak to us even today will be welcomed by all who are interested in Iowa history and the settlement of the Midwest and by those intrigued by Iowa's rich legacy of historical photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is a book that should be in every Iowa library
Photographic histories of any subject are interesting almost by definition. The images capture for all time specific characteristics of the people and places. In the timeframe covered in this volume, Iowa was almost totally a rural state, with many of the farm families being isolated. That isolation was not total, the reason that Iowa has so many counties was to make sure that every citizen was within a one-day buggy ride from the county seat of government.
The modern world was just beginning to take hold in the state in the first two decades of the twentieth century. There are photos of cars alongside horse and buggies, electric trolleys and wood stoves. One striking feature is how much clothing the people wore, even in summer. There are several photos of people sitting outside or on picnics in the summer and the men are wearing long-sleeve shirts with a coat or vest and the women thick, ankle-length dresses with high collars.
This is a book that should be in every library in Iowa, for it clearly shows the state the way it was for the first seventy years.
... Read more