Choice Review

One hundred and fifty years ago, several hundred (mostly) notable Americans spent two weeks together traveling 3,000 miles via five steamboats and two trains from Chicago to St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota Territory. The Chicago and Rock Island Railroad financed and orchestrated the "Grand Excursion" to celebrate the completion of the first rail route linking the East Coast and the Mississippi River and thus promote the potential of the Upper Mississippi region. More than simply local histories of largely regional interest, these two very different publications celebrate the Grand Excursion and examine its place in the broader history of the nation. Keillor uses newspaper articles, diaries, and almost anything else written by excursion participants in order to accomplish two things: to detail the history of the excursion "for those who will celebrate its sesquicentennial" and to illustrate the antebellum era "for college students and others interested in an entertaining, focused, yet comprehensive account." Placing his analysis in historical and national perspective, Keillor thus deals with many of the issues facing Americans that summer just before the War between the States. Roseman and Roseman have edited 13 articles from geographers, cultural and landscape historians, housing planners, and others that move the Grand Excursion beyond the event to study its effects and significance on the regional development of the Upper Mississippi and its role in shaping the nation's cultural and economic history. The collection also examines the region's economic and environmental issues, visual and landscape realities, and what all of this may mean for the 21st century. The authors of both books show that local and/or regional history needs neither to surrender to hucksterism nor to flounder in what may be interesting to only a very few devotees. The books are important contributions to our complete understanding of the time immediately preceding the Civil War. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. L. Graves South Plains College