Iowa

Inspired by 'Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls' and 'Rad Women A to Z,' Iowa State education professor Katy Swalwell worked with over 25 Iowa women artists and RAYGUN to create an illustrated children's book that celebrates the incredible accomplishments through short biographies of a diverse set of women throughout Iowa's history. The book is available at raygunsite.com.

An overview of Iowa's Native American tribes that discusses their history, culture, language, and traditions, and includes illustrations.

"A reminder that even the smallest newspapers can hold the most powerful among us accountable."—The New York Times Book Review Watch the documentary Storm Lake on PBS. Iowa plays an outsize role in national politics. Iowa introduced Barack Obama and voted bigly for Donald Trump. But is it a bellwether for America, a harbinger of its future? Art Cullen’s answer is complicated and honest. In truth, Iowa is losing ground. The Trump trade wars are hammering farmers and manufacturers. Health insurance premiums and drug prices are soaring. That’s what Iowans are dealing with, and the problems they face are the problems of the heartland. In this candid and timely book, Art Cullen—the Storm Lake Times newspaperman who won a Pulitzer Prize for taking on big corporate agri-industry and its poisoning of local rivers—describes how the heartland has changed dramatically over his career. In a story where politics, agri­culture, the environment, and immigration all converge, Cullen offers an unsentimental ode to rural America and to the resilient people of a vibrant community of fifteen thousand in Northwest Iowa, as much sur­vivors as their town.

The Iowa State Constitution is the first comprehensive analysis of the Iowa Constitution and its individual provisions. In it, Jack Stark presents a comprehensive overview of Iowas constitutional historical development and discusses cases of particular importance. Also included are a bibliographic essay, table of cases, tables relating to constitutional conventions and amendments, and a general index, offering significant sources for further study. Previously published by Greenwood, this title has been brought back in to circulation by Oxford University Press with new verve. Re-printed with standardization of content organization in order to facilitate research across the series, this title, as with all titles in the series, is set to join the dynamic revision cycle of The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States. The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the states constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research. Under the expert editorship of Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents.

If Barack Obama had not won in Iowa, most commentators believe that he would not have been able to go on to capture the Democratic nomination for president. Why Iowa? offers the definitive account of those early weeks of the campaign season: from how the Iowa caucuses work and what motivates the candidates’ campaigns, to participation and turnout, as well as the lingering effects that the campaigning had on Iowa voters. Demonstrating how “what happens in Iowa” truly reverberates throughout the country, five-time Iowa precinct caucus chair David P. Redlawsk and his coauthors take us on an inside tour of one of the most media-saturated and speculated-about campaign events in American politics. Considering whether a sequential primary system, in which early, smaller states such as Iowa and New Hampshire have such a tremendous impact is fair or beneficial to the country as a whole, the authors here demonstrate that not only is the impact warranted, but it also reveals a great deal about informational elements of the campaigns. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this sequential system does confer huge benefits on the nominating process while Iowa’s particularly well-designed caucus system—extensively explored here for the first time—brings candidates’ arguments, strengths, and weaknesses into the open and under the media’s lens.

While new railroad tracks cut through Northwestern Iowa in the mid-19th century, hardy pioneers cultivated the fertile soil, and the burgeoning sport of baseball took root and flourished. An integral element of the developing culture, it promoted community pride. Eight Northwestern Iowa towns supported professional teams by 1912, the first being Sioux City in 1888. Over time, that city’s clubs produced hall-of-fame shortstop Dave Bancroft and initiated the still-existing American League. Homegrown talent from an abundance of professional, semiprofessional, and amateur clubs throughout the area’s 19 counties yielded 38 major-league players before 1960 and more since.

"An Introduction to Iowa's Environmental Problems is an edited volume with 17 contributors besides Connie Mutel herself-all Iowa authors who are scientific experts in the field. Geared toward course adoption in Iowa and Midwest classrooms, it will fill a need for a comprehensive, but accessible and brief overview of the environmental issues Iowa faces, and what we can do about them. Specifically, the volume breaks down the issues surrounding Iowa's land and soils, water, atmosphere, and loss of biological diversity. Teachers lack a go-to resource for explaining this topic to their students, and many Iowans remain unaware of the environmental impacts of farming. And with the new administration's focus on environmental concerns, including climate change, the timing is right to change that. At this point, Iowa can choose a route toward becoming an agricultural factory that disregards nature's sustainability and resilience, or we can steer toward a saner future that recognizes and honors our soils, climate, water, and native species. With this book, Mutel will help guide future Iowa leaders toward the latter"--