海角乱伦社区has been blessed with citizens of strong character who have made invaluable contributions to the state and to the nation. In the 1930s alone, such towering figures as John L. Lewis, Henry A. Wallace, and Herbert Hoover hugely influenced the nation鈥檚 affairs. Iowa鈥檚 Native Americans, early explorers, inventors, farmers, scholars, baseball players, musicians, artists, writers, politicians, scientists, conservationists, preachers, educators, and activists continue to enrich our lives and inspire our imaginations.
Written by an impressive team of more than 150 scholars and writers, the readable narratives include each subject鈥檚 name, birth and death dates, place of birth, education, and career and contributions. Many of the names will be instantly recognizable to most Iowans; others are largely forgotten but deserve to be remembered. Beyond the distinctive lives and times captured in the individual biographies, readers of the dictionary will gain an appreciation for how the character of the state has been shaped by the character of the individuals who have inhabited it.
From Dudley Warren Adams, fruit grower and Grange leader, to the Younker brothers, founders of one of Iowa鈥檚 most successful department stores, The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa is peopled with the rewarding lives of more than four hundred notable citizens of the Hawkeye State. The histories contained in this essential reference work should be eagerly read by anyone who cares about 海角乱伦社区and its citizens.
Entries include Cap Anson, Bix Beiderbecke, Black Hawk, Amelia Jenks Bloomer, William Carpenter, Philip Greeley Clapp, Gardner Cowles Sr., Samuel Ryan Curtis, Jay Norwood Darling, Grenville Dodge, Julien Dubuque, August S. Duesenberg, Paul Engle, Phyllis L. Propp Fowle, George Gallup, Hamlin Garland, Susan Glaspell, Josiah Grinnell, Charles Hearst, Josephine Herbst, Herbert Hoover, Inkpaduta, Louis Jolliet, MacKinlay Kantor, Keokuk, Aldo Leopold, John L. Lewis, Marquette, Elmer Maytag, Christian Metz, Bertha Shambaugh, Ruth Suckow, Billy Sunday, Henry Wallace, and Grant Wood.
鈥泪苍 The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, we have a comprehensive listing of famous and influential Iowans, from Dudley Warren Adams to the Younker brothers. This accessibly written and thorough volume will be useful to anyone with an interest in the history of 海角乱伦社区and the Midwest.鈥濃擯amela Riney-Kehrberg, professor and director of the Agricultural History and Rural Studies Program, 海角乱伦社区State University
鈥淭his authoritative, wide-ranging, and engaging biographical dictionary will prove an essential reference for anyone interested in the history of Iowa, the Midwest, or the United States. Astutely organized, cogently written, and skillfully edited, it is an important tool as well as a fascinating read.鈥濃擱. Douglas Hurt, Purdue University
鈥淐omprehensive and concise, The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa will save generations of reporters, students, teachers, historians, and reference librarians hours tracking down who's who in Iowa's past. In simple alphabetical order, hundreds of 海角乱伦社区luminaries from chiropractic medicine, women's suffrage, environmentalism, politics, astronomy, the Nobel Prize, education, the military, and art of all stripes take a bow. Bravo.鈥濃擳om Morain, author, Prairie Grass Roots
Gallup, George Horace (November 19, 1901鈥揓uly 26, 1984)鈥攆ounder of the American Institute of Public Opinion, better known as the Gallup Poll, whose name was synonymous with public opinion polling around the world鈥攚as born in Jefferson, Iowa. . . . A New Yorker article would later speculate that it was Gallup鈥檚 background in 鈥渦tterly normal Iowa鈥 that enabled him to find 鈥渘othing odd in the idea that one man might represent, statistically, ten thousand or more of his own kind.鈥 . . . In 1935 Gallup partnered with Harry Anderson to found the American Institute of Public Opinion, based in Princeton, New Jersey, an opinion polling firm that included a syndicated newspaper column called 鈥淎merica Speaks.鈥 The reputation of the or颅ganization was made when Gallup publicly chal颅lenged the polling techniques of The Literary Digest, the best-known political straw poll of the day. Calculating that the Digest would wrongly predict that Kansas Republican Alf Landon would win the presidential election, Gallup offered newspapers a money-back guarantee if his prediction that Franklin Delano Roosevelt would win wasn鈥檛 more accurate. Gallup believed that public opinion polls served an important function in a democracy: 鈥淚f government is supposed to be based on the will of the people, somebody ought to go and find what that will is,鈥 Gallup explained.
