John E. Miller - Böcker

Taking concepts such as place and community, freedom and control, Miller shows how they operate in Laura Ingalls Wilder's novels of prairie life. The book is grounded in detailed research of the Dakotas of the 1880s.

Although generations of readers of the Little House books are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder's early life up through her first years of marriage to Almanzo Wilder, few know about her adult years. Going beyond previous studies, ""Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder"" focuses upon Wilder's years in Missouri from 1894 to 1957. Utilizing her unpublished autobiography, letters, newspaper stories, and other documentary evidence, John E. Miller fills the gaps in Wilder's autobiographical novels, and describes her sixty-three years of living in Mansfield, Missouri. As a result, the process of personal development that culminated in Wilder's writing of the novels that secured her reputation as one of America's most popular children's authors becomes evident.

One of America's leading authorities on Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane combine analyses of both women to explore their collaborative process and how their books reflect the authors' view of place, time, and culture, expanding the critical discussion of Wilder and Lane beyond the Little house.

History of South Dakota is widely recognized as the definitive history of the state. Beginning with the earliest American Indian settlers, Herbert S. Schell traces the history of this region midway between the Midwest and the West. This classic account provides a picture of South Dakota’s political, economic, social, and environmental history, identifying the local, regional, national, and global forces that shaped the fortieth state through World War II. John E. Miller picks up the story at the beginning of the Cold War and chronicles the rest of the twentieth century. From the interaction of its native inhabitants with its newer visitors and residents, including fur traders, gold miners, homesteaders, and cattlemen, to the development of its political systems, the state’s rich heritage is captured here. By placing the opportunities and challenges of the last century - rural electrification, interstate highways, agricultural consolidation, ongoing dialogues among American Indians and non-Indians - in context, Miller contends that the state’s citizens will be better able to forge its future in the new millennium.

South Dakota is often thought of as a conservative or “red” state, but its political culture is much more variegated and unpredictable than such colour-coded references might imply. Just as the nation as a whole consists of diverse regions and subcultures that manifest fairly wide swings of opinion and voting patterns over time, South Dakota contains its own geographic variations and political subcultures. The first volume illustrated the complex nature of state politics and cyclical change over time, and this new group of essays concentrates on some of the unpredictability and contradictoriness of the state and its citizens. Editors Jon K. Lauck, John E. Miller, and Donald C. Simmons, Jr., have brought together ten essays on a diverse number of topics to consider the state’s underlying political culture. Contributors deliberate over such topics as the influence of political organisations, conservatism, patriotism, leadership, local and national political culture, people’s movements, and cowboy politics in an effort to develop a fuller sense of where South Dakota fits into the growing study of modern political culture.

Evidence is accumulating that democracy is under siege--in the United States and around the world. This volume identifies and explains a dozen separate challenges threatening American democracy today. Sorting these challenges into political and social-cultural problems, each is placed in an historical context to describe how they work together to undermine the democratic underpinnings of the nation.Opening with a sketch of the historical development of democracy, this book makes the case for improved civic education, rebuilding trust in institutions and leaders, promoting good character and the revitalization of the healthy community. A renewed commitment to governmental institutions is necessary for the people to fulfill democracy's promise.