History of North Dakota - Hardcover

Robinson, Elwyn B.

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Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0911042431 ISBN 13: 9780911042436

Publisher: North Dakota Inst for, 1995

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Elwyn Robinson's sweeping HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA has become one of America's classic state histories. It has been reviewed as "astonishingly comprehensive" and "fascinating." One of the state's great professors and historians takes into account not only politics, but sociology, economics, ethnology, theology, nature studies, and geography to describe North Dakota to the world and to itself.

Geography, in particular, formed the basis of Robinson's historical interpretation. His "too-much mistake," the belief that North Dakota built too much, too fast, in an isolated area buffeted by a difficult climate, has become the guiding principle for a quarter century of historical debate on Dakota plains history.

Long out of print, Robinson's 1966 work has now been reissued by the North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies at North Dakota State University, Fargo. Included are a new preface by UND history professor D. Jerome Tweton, and a new postscript by NDSU history professor David B. Danbom. Both recognized experts on plains history, Professor Tweton examines the themes and the time of Robinson, while Professor Danbom brings the state's history from the mid-1960s to the present. Also new in this edition are 41 photos and illustrations.

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About the Author:

The author was born October 13, 1905, on a farm near Cleveland, Ohio. Nine years later the family moved to Chagrin Falls, outside Cleveland, where his father opened a photographic studio. Professor Robinson retained a life-long love of photography, but he majored in English at Oberlin College.

After graduation Robinson became English teacher and principal of a small high school in New Lyme, Ohio. His appreciation for history grew into a decision to return to graduate study in American history at Ohio's Western Reserve University. He managed to secure a scarce Depression-era university position in 1935, coming to UND to teach American history, and finished his Ph.D. dissertation the next year.

Robinson's great work emerged from a series of radio biographies on North Dakota's personalities, begun in 1947. Robinson retired from UND in 1974 with the university's highest rank, University Professor. He died in 1988.

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