Publisher's Synopsis
In the mid-nineteenth century, the north central United States was producing crops and livestock that fed much of the country, and most people in the region lived on farms or in small towns. The region had only a few larger cities, which were located on the regions web of rivers and provided transportation hubs. Within a few decades, a network of sixty-three cities with populations of at least ten thousand had developed in the area now known as the American Midwest.
