09-28-2019, 12:20 PM
https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/08/whe...lt/597082/
(Source: CityLab)
At a time when it can seem Americans have never been more divided, one issue stirs up passions like no other. I speak, of course, of the definition of “the Midwest.”
Delineating that great vast middle of the country—interior but definitely not Southern, west of the Northeast, but not the West—isn’t just a matter of parochial concern to the tens of millions of Americans with ties to the region. It also speaks to an abiding fascination of our current political moment: trying to pin down some romanticized “Heartland.” This term is often invoked to suggest a simpler, more agrarian, and often more virtuous place than whatever else the Midwest is being compared to at any given moment.
Add to all that more fundamental questions about what the Midwest actually is. Is it a geographic entity that can be defined by state lines, rivers, and mountains? Or is it a set of mores, values, and shared cultural attributes that are only loosely associated with the land itself, so a place can be partially Midwestern and partially something else?
Okay - so, the US Census Bureau definition of the 'Midwest' includes Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. However, their definition of the 'South' also includes Delaware, which I think few Southerners would agree with, so I'm not taking the Census Bureau definition as the be-all and end-all .
The survey data seems to line up closely, but not completely, with the Census Bureau definition: not everyone from the western parts of the Great Plains states don't consider themselves 'Midwestern'; a few people from bordering parts of bordering states (like Kentucky and Pennsylvania) do; and a small number of people from Rhode Island place themselves in the Midwest .
So, if you were to make your own map, there's no reason why you'd need stick to state lines here: perhaps you'd want to mark some states as partly inside the Midwest, and partly outside it; or mark some parts of America as "having Midwestern cultural influences, but not fully part of the Midwest". So, what are your views?
(Source: CityLab)
At a time when it can seem Americans have never been more divided, one issue stirs up passions like no other. I speak, of course, of the definition of “the Midwest.”
Delineating that great vast middle of the country—interior but definitely not Southern, west of the Northeast, but not the West—isn’t just a matter of parochial concern to the tens of millions of Americans with ties to the region. It also speaks to an abiding fascination of our current political moment: trying to pin down some romanticized “Heartland.” This term is often invoked to suggest a simpler, more agrarian, and often more virtuous place than whatever else the Midwest is being compared to at any given moment.
Add to all that more fundamental questions about what the Midwest actually is. Is it a geographic entity that can be defined by state lines, rivers, and mountains? Or is it a set of mores, values, and shared cultural attributes that are only loosely associated with the land itself, so a place can be partially Midwestern and partially something else?
Okay - so, the US Census Bureau definition of the 'Midwest' includes Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. However, their definition of the 'South' also includes Delaware, which I think few Southerners would agree with, so I'm not taking the Census Bureau definition as the be-all and end-all .
The survey data seems to line up closely, but not completely, with the Census Bureau definition: not everyone from the western parts of the Great Plains states don't consider themselves 'Midwestern'; a few people from bordering parts of bordering states (like Kentucky and Pennsylvania) do; and a small number of people from Rhode Island place themselves in the Midwest .
So, if you were to make your own map, there's no reason why you'd need stick to state lines here: perhaps you'd want to mark some states as partly inside the Midwest, and partly outside it; or mark some parts of America as "having Midwestern cultural influences, but not fully part of the Midwest". So, what are your views?
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