John Fry is Assistant Professor of History at Trinity Christian College.

• List of tables List of MapsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction. The Rural Midwest and the Midwestern Farm Press During the Progressive Era, 1895-19201. First Class Papers and Never-Stop Papers: Twenty-Five Years of the Midwestern Farm Press2. Owners and Editors: The Faces Behind the Midwestern Farm Press3. What Farmers Read and Liked: Scenes of Reading in the Rural Midwest4. Who Read the Agricultural Journalist?: Farm Newspaper Subscribers in the Lower Midwest5. Innumerable Little White Churches: The Ritual Church and the Midwestern Farm Press6. The School House at the Crossroads: The Rural School and the Midwestern Farm Press7. Why Leave the Farm?: The Rural Family and the Midwestern Farm PressConclusion. Good Farming-Clear Thinking-Right Living: The USes of Midwestern Farm NewspapersAppendix A. Researching Reading in Rural Midwesterners' RecordsAppendix B. Midwestern Farm Newspapers since the 1920s.Appendix C. TablesAppendix D. MapsBibliography