This summer as I’ve been researching and writing about the international consciousness of rural communities in the Midwest, I have found an abundance of material. Some of the themes that have emerged were expected, such as the frenzied discussion of Chinese immigration in the 1880s. Others caught me by surprise, for instance, the presence of Japanese students at a rural college in Michigan during the 1870s. Another of my unexpected discoveries was the interest that these rural immigrant communities took in native people living in the Arctic. So, on a warm and sunny July 4, this series turns its attention Read more