Resources and Enrichment for HIST 431/631

 

Some of these materials, the "Bibliography of the North American Plains," for instance, you will need to complete required elements of the course. Others you may find useful in completing assignments, or you may just browse. In addition to the links provided below, you can find a lot of material in two other websites, the first of which is the Center for Heritage Renewal, an applied-research center for which I am director. The other is my corporate website. The front door to that site is the Plains Folk Home Page.

 

Note: this page is under construction.

 

Prof. Isern’s Pages

Bibliography of the North American Plains – the general bibliography for HIST 431

Plains Folk at Prairie Public – weekly feature about life on the plains

Canada and the United States: The View from Prairie Canada – it's not a pretty picture

Elwyn Robinson's Six Themes – a classic model for historical interpretation of the region

Four Sources of Regional Culture – my own model for synthesis in regional history

The Webb Thesis – summarizing the ideas of Webb's classic Great Plains

The Turner Theses – ideas you need to know about, for this course and for general knowledge of American history

William Stafford's Un-National Boundary – some classic works on the border

Red River Valley – Edith Fowke's text of the folksong

Sweet Betsy from Pike – text of the trail ballad, at my HIST 103 site

Freedom Fighter Gordon Kahl – text of the ballad plus commentary by KFGO Radio

NDSU Resources

Humanities Librarian Fran Fisher – your best friend when you need library research advice

Institute for Regional Studies – book, manuscript, and photo collections

Center for Heritage Renewal – historic preservation, heritage tourism, heritage resources

Germans from Russia Heritage Collection – books, oral history, lots of web material

Institutions & Associations

State Historical Society of North Dakota

South Dakota State Historical Society

Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation

Santa Fe Trail Association

Kansas State Historical Society

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Preservation North Dakota

American Memory Project (Library of Congress)

Audio, Video, Graphic

Lewis and Clark on PBS

Tamara's Gunsmoke Site

Chuck Suchy – North Dakota’s balladeer

The Searchers – classic, disturbing film directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne (his best)

Ian Tyson – great cowboy singer from Alberta

Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

Andy Wilkinson – great songwriter from West Texas

Corner Gas – prairie town sitcom from the CBC

Pare Lorentz – maker of classic documentaries, including The Plow That Broke the Plains

Arts & Literature

Friends of William Stafford – greatest of Great Plains poets

Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial – greatest of Great Plains novelists

Amon Carter Museum – Fort Worth’s great repository of western art

Birger Sandzιn Memorial Gallery – showcasing work of the great Swedish-American painter of the central plains

Maps, Geology, Landforms

Color Landform Atlas of the United States

The Geologic Story of the Great Plains

Topics

The Northwest Resistance

State of Great Plains Archeology

Newspapers

Bismarck Tribune

Billings Gazette

Regina Leader-Post

Wichita Eagle

Just Neat Stuff

Country Grain Elevator Historical Society

Sixman Football Association

 

 

Mennonite Central Committee

 

The Garden of Eden

Vendors

Cabela's

Shepler's Western Wear

HIST 431 Archives

Class Photo Fall 2000

 

Home Page HIST 431/631