The four Northwestern "Omnibus States" admitted to the Union in 1889 were Washington, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. As a new university instructor soon moving from Michigan to North Dakota, I was delighted to read Jon Lauck's new book on Dakota Territory as an introduction to my new home. My own route of emigration parallels the great shift of half a million people from the Midwest to Dakota Territory during the 1880s that Jon Lauck describes so well in this fascinating book. His thesis is that the political culture of Dakota Territory was shaped primarily by republicanism and Christianity. He argues that these factors were more critical than class, race, gender, or environmental issues in buttressing the efforts of settlers to build a stable polity and seek the granting of statehood in 1889

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There are few professions in which one can interact in such a healthy way with young people. Though the life of a university teacher is full of work day in and day out, including weekends, I get to do what I love: converse about ideas and books!

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Perhaps the purpose of an educational system is to foster a common world of moral and intellectual values, a common memory that helps a given culture maintain itself. Specialized education, while important at the graduate level, can hinder the education of the rising generation of undergraduate students into such a common memory.

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