Barnstorming the Prairies: How Aerial Vision Shaped the Midwest

(Paperback)

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Description

Barnstorming the Prairies offers a panoramic vista of the transformative nature and power of the aerial vision that remade the Midwest in the wake of the airplane. Jason Weems explores how the cognitive and perceptual practices of aerial vision helped to resymbolize the Midwestern landscape amid the technological change and social uncertainty of the early twentieth century.

Reviews

"Barnstorming the Prairies deepens our understanding of the Midwest and attitudes toward it in the twentieth century. It is original, authoritative, and an engaging read."Joni Kinsey, University of Iowa

"Amazing, refreshing, and thought-provoking."Leonardo Reviews

"An important contribution to the literature onethnographic and visual history."CHOICE

"Enthusiasts of visual culture, history, and rural life should welcome this book, which performs significant cultural work itself in reorienting scholarly views of the Midwest, and is a strong contribution to the current recentering of the Midwest in American cultural studies."The Annals of Iowa

"The in-depth text and the extensive visualsaerial photos and maps, as well as painting, cinema, and architecturetogether reveal aerial visions fundamental contribution to the regional identity of the Midwest."Minnesota History

"Illustrated with 19th-century birds-eye views, airplane route maps, and Grant Wood paintings, Barnstorming the Prairies shows how the modern invention of flight couldnt have been better timed to shape modern painting, silent-era filmmaking, and even the planning of New Deal suburbs."Architecture Minnesota

"His specialty in art history, along with a deep understanding of geography, architecture, and planning, provides a well-rounded and thoughtful treatment of the topic that is truly multidisciplinary and relevant to any student or resident of the Great Plains."Great Plains Quarterly

"Productively combining cultural history, visual theory, science studies, art history and geography, the book will interest a diverse readership."Visual Studies

"Readers will learn about an important shift in American culture from a regional perspective."The Michigan Historical Review

"A model for analyzing aeriality across various media and in multiple guises, making it a comprehensive read that would prove useful in various courses, from art history to architectural and urban history."Panorama

Author Bio

Jason Weems is associate professor of art history at the University of California, Riverside.