Introduction : what is the nation, at heart? -- Between place and space : the pioneering politics of locality -- Meat in the middle : converging borderlands in the U.S. Midwest -- Hog-tied : the roots of the modern American empire -- The isolationist capital of America : hotbed of alliance politics -- Flownover states : the view from the middle of everything -- Home, land, security : exile, dispossession, and loss -- Conclusion : the nation, at heart

"A history of a quintessentially American place - the rural and small town heartland -- that uncovers deep yet hidden currents of connection with the world"--