This is definitely not "leisure" reading. This is more of a textbook for high school and college students. That being said - I did learn a lot about the great state of Iowa, and as someone who lives in Indiana - a lot of it felt very familiar to me. Broken into three parts: Iowa to the Civil War, Iowa from the Civil War to 1929, and Iowa since 1929 - each part was then broken into 5 chapters or sections. This history book was very linear which made it easy to follow. I wish there was a little more about Iowa before it was a state, but I guess there wasn't much to write about prairie and the Indigenous tribes. I do appreciate that the author noted how homogenous and white the state was (and is) and discussed how hard it was for African Americans, immigrants, women, and LGBTQ folx. Very slow paced read, but informative. I can only imagine how hard it would be to condense an entire state's history into one book!
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