Portrait of a City: Lincoln, Nebraska, at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Historian Pauley (Pioneering History on Two Continents) offers an intricate account of his hometown of Lincoln, Neb., tracing the development of a minor prairie hub into an industrial city during the last decade of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th. Using Lincoln as a case study, Pauley demonstrates the impact of modernization on the everyday lives of ordinary people, including their work, means of transportation, and domestic arrangements. In particular, he details ways in which residents of Lincoln sought to make their burgeoning city a beautiful and cultured one. During this period, Lincoln became home to a grand opera house, literary societies, public parks, and a flagship state university. Elsewhere, Pauley spotlights the experiences of German immigrants and the municipal government’s efforts to Americanize them, as well as the city’s history of anti-Black violence, including the Sept. 28, 1919, lynching of William Brown, which was provoked by inflammatory rhetoric in a local newspaper. Though Pauley never turns a blind eye to the wrongs committed by residents of Lincoln, his portrait is a genuine labor of love. Midwest history buffs will enjoy this tremendously. (Sept.)