History of North Dakota

by Elwyn B. Robinson, David B. Danbom, D. Jerome Tweton

Elwyn Robinson's sweeping HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA has become one of America's classic state histories. It has been reviewed as "astonishingly comprehensive" and "fascinating." One of the state's great professors and historians takes into account not only politics, but sociology, economics, ethnology, theology, nature studies, and geography to describe North Dakota to the world and to itself. Geography, in particular, formed the basis of Robinson's historical interpretation. His "too-much mistake," the belief that North Dakota built too much, too fast, in an isolated area buffeted by a difficult climate, has become the guiding principle for a quarter century of historical debate on Dakota plains history. Long out of print, Robinson's 1966 work has now been reissued by the North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies at North Dakota State University, Fargo. Included are a new preface by UND history professor D. Jerome Tweton, and a new postscript by NDSU history professor David B. Danbom. Both recognized experts on plains history, Professor Tweton examines the themes and the time of Robinson, while Professor Danbom brings the state's history from the mid-1960s to the present. Also new in this edition are 41 photos and illustrations.

Genres: History

610 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1982

Reviews

[Michael O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what a call a "niche" book ---- one that's highly concentrated on a very specific subject matter. When I grew up in Idaho, I used to look at a map of the US, and think that North Dakota is one of the few states more isolated and seemingly empty than northern Idaho.

Robinson shows that such is not the case. North Dakota has a rich history, and one quite different from the more populous states. It is a story of exploration, pioneering, and cultivating under very remote, tough, arduous conditions. As a history buff, I found this to be a very interesting read. In the latter part of the book, Robinson does get a bit off into the weeds on some of his discussion of North Dakota's cultural and artistic developments, but it's political history, especially, and the struggles of its citizens to prevent exploitation by powerful business interests such as the railroads, mills, and grain elevator firms are fascinating, in my opinion. With respect to his perspective, the author is mildly sympathetic to Roosevelt's New Deal programs, and does detail such things accomplished under such as road and parks building, citing it as having helped the citizens' morale. However, in his own statistics, no evidence is really shown that these really improved economically the lot overall of North Dakota's farmers and other citizens. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the book, and recommend this to anyone interested in the story of America's westward development.

[Michael R · Rating 5 out of 5]

If ever you wanted a "cut the bullshit" story of how North Dakota came to be, this is the one. Many of the names, events, places, that were asterisks to me prior, became fully fleshed in reading this book. A full-fledged academic/scholar associated with the University of North Dakota, his is the benchmark for understanding the formation and maturation of the state of North Dakota. Irreplaceable and unmatched, anyone who wants to understand the state need only read this book.