Midwest Maize How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland by Cynthia Clampitt (review)

This highly readable survey of the history of one of the world’s most important foods is packed with information, but offers no new interpretation or a thorough exploration of primary sources. It is a mostly positive history of innovators and doers, of strivers and settlers, and is written for a general audience. Midwest Maize is a useful source for anyone seeking to understand the importance of this grain in American history and especially the Midwest. While little in this synthesis will be new for academics, most readers will find it to be an entertaining read. Maize is a type of grass, with big leaves that effectively convert sunlight and nutrients into growth. Humans have been tinkering with the crop for thousands of years. It was a vital crop for Mexico and Central America more than 5,000 years ago. By 500 A.D. the crop had adapted to northern climates and was grown in what is today the state of New York. It was easy to grow and provided lots of food for native societies, as well as Europeans. One ear of corn provides as much grain as 100 ears of wheat. Maize became known as Indian corn and then simply corn in the American colonies. Corn helped conquer the American frontier, feeding generations of settlers as they moved west. Crop-fed farmers and city dwellers spawned all sorts of innovations that helped to bring the crop from seed to table. Tools and machinery were made to help harvest it—plows and tractors cut labor needs, for example. Grain elevators, grain bins, stockyards, and railroads all evolved to help produce and transport the crop. There is rarely a technological advance that does not appear tied to corn, from cast-iron stoves to canned foods to pivot irrigation. Much of the book is a history of white men and their inventions. The grain is often consumed by livestock and poultry, rather than by humans. Corn is the only one of the major three grain crops—the others are rice and wheat—that is widely fed to Book Reviews