The Midwest in World Perspective

This presentation examines the place of contemporary Midwestern regional and historical scholarship in the perspective of transnational historiography, especially that promoted by the Organization of American Historians’ La Pietra project of the late 1990s and early twenty-first century. During the past three decades both the OAH and the American Historical Association have promoted scholarship, professional development, and instructional curriculum exploring global narratives, and, as Draper argues, the question needs to be answered not whether but where Is the place for regional ad local studies in such scholarship. After briefly reviewing the history of LaPietra and late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century, transnational studies, the author reviews the revival of Midwest studies, which predated the transnational “turn” but really began to attract professional notice in the past decade. Including a discussion of Turnerian historiography, Draper argues that there has long been a transnational element to Midwestern historiography. He argues that there are three foundational areas of Midwestern studies that have global implications. The first such area is that of the colonial Midwest, where Indigenous Peoples, Europeans (particularly the French and English), and Africans met and negotiated power and cultural relationships from the seventeenth through late eighteenth centuries. Boundaries—both cultural and geographical—represent a second area of analysis, including the frontier and state-making of the Old Northwest and the commercial and transportation significance of the Great Lakes. He concludes that by connecting personal histories of the local and regional with larger historiographical frameworks, scholars of the Midwest region have long engaged in the transnational aspirations of the La Pietra Repot and will continue to do so.