Beyond Corn and Caucuses

Beyond Corn and Caucuses is an interdisciplinary exploration of Iowa's modern history and identity through visual culture that offers fresh insights on a state that has too often been stereotyped as flat, bland, and homogeneous.

Combining art history, American studies, politics, film studies, and tourism studies, author Anna Thompson Hajdik tells new stories about the state and makes connections between past and present, the regional and the national, and myth and reality. Through six case studies focused on a different depiction of the state, Hajdik unravels how the image of Iowa has morphed over time into a totemic symbol of the nation's character. From films like Field of Dreams and The Music Man to vibrant public art and coverage of the Iowa caucuses, Beyond Corn and Caucuses asks readers to consider how the intersection of regional and national identity has taken root in a place like Iowa, and how its visual culture can play a significant role in shaping collective public memory.

More than just a chronological history of Iowa, Beyond Corn and Caucuses reclaims and elevates the history and culture of the American Midwest.