Topic #11 The Great American West

The Great Plains
We often romanticize it -- but what was it really like growing up in small town America in the first half of the 20th century. That is the subject of a new book by Dorothy Hubbard Schwieder, who is our guest this week. Airdate: February 10, 2003.

Bison
Talking History's Fred Nielsen is joined by PrincetonUniversity history professor Andrew Isenberg, author of The Destruction of the Bison:An Environmental History, 1750-1920. We often attribute the near extinction of the bison to their mass slaughter, but according Andrew Isenberg, ecological factors including predatory animals, disease, and drought are a central part of the story, too. Airdate: April 19, 2004.

The Children's Blizzard
January 12, 1888 began as an unseasonably warm morning across the upper Midwest. Children walked to school without coats and gloves, unaware of the impending blizzard that was to claim 500 lives. John Herron discusses that tragic event with his guest, David Laskin, author of The Children’s Blizzard. Airdate: January 2, 2006.