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

• List of tables List of Maps List of Abbreviations Introduction. The Rural Midwest and the Midwestern Farm Press During the Progressive Era, 1895-1920 1. First Class Papers and Never-Stop Papers: Twenty-Five Years of the Midwestern Farm Press 2. Owners and Editors: The Faces Behind the Midwestern Farm Press 3. What Farmers Read and Liked: Scenes of Reading in the Rural Midwest 4. Who Read the Agricultural Journalist?: Farm Newspaper Subscribers in the Lower Midwest 5. Innumerable Little White Churches: The Ritual Church and the Midwestern Farm Press 6. The School House at the Crossroads: The Rural School and the Midwestern Farm Press 7. Why Leave the Farm?: The Rural Family and the Midwestern Farm Press Conclusion. Good Farming-Clear Thinking-Right Living: The USes of Midwestern Farm Newspapers Appendix A. Researching Reading in Rural Midwesterners' Records Appendix B. Midwestern Farm Newspapers since the 1920s. Appendix C. Tables Appendix D. Maps Bibliography