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Rating: 
Summary: Good for academics, but will probably bore most others.
Review: After buying this book, I regret not reading a few pages in the store so that I could decide on whether to keep looking for something more accessible. The book is often tedious and rambling. While the basic organization is clear and logical, each chapter covers too many incidents and characters in too little detail, with weak transitions leading to an overall feeling of choppiness. Miner relies too much on quotes which feature the language of the day for added color, adding an unnecessary level of complexity in many instances. Too many characters come, go and return too quickly; events do likewise. Even careful readers may find themselves referring back to previous pages and paragraphs to keep everything straight (which is, of course, detrimental to flow). This is, frankly, not a book that will give most readers a good feel for Kansas in any way except in the abstract. It's full of great facts and research, but is just not compelling or colorful writing. I'm on the lookout for a more interesting read while I slowly work my way through this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A landmark book for the thinking student of Kansas
Review: Craig Miner's exhaustive volume demolishes the marginalization of Kansas in the writing of American history. Arguing for the importance of regional history, Miner persuades the reader that Kansas is not a "Great American Desert" historically, but a fascinating land, chockful of colorful characters, dramatic events, and great influence on the rest of the United States. Given the exhaustive nature of the volume, every reader will find something of interest in Miner's history, from agricultural history to political intrigue. Most Kansas histories simply scratch the surface, citing "Bleeding Kansas" and prohibition as everything interesting about Kansas. Not so with Minor's work. The pro-communist Waldo McNutt shares the stage with the anti-communist Gerald K. Winrod in a story that will remind Kansans of the richness of their history and amaze others with what historical treasures have yet be unearthed in the middle of America. The final chapter demonstrates what separates Miner from many other historians. A finely woven look at Kansas and its future, the author weaves in cultural allusions from Bob Dylan to Reynolds Price in order to understand the struggle for Kansas' identity. This is a rich work for any fan of American history.
Rating:
Summary: A scholarly work on Kansas
Review: I am not surprised at Mr. Fitzgerald's remarks regarding Craig Miner's fine new work on Kansas. Fitzgerald, who has published two successful books on "ghost towns" (actually "near dead" towns) in Kansas is a popularizer. His books, while fun to read, are by no means scholarly works. Miner's new book is scholarly, but interesting! Robert Richmond's book is a good survey of Kansas history, but is appropriate for a high school audience. Thomas Isern's book, Kansas Land, is written for a junior high audience. Until Miner wrote this book, there has been no survey of Kansas history that was apporpriate for college students and for scholarly study. Richmond's book has suggesstions for further reading at the end of every chapter. Fitzgerald seems to be underestimating Kansans in the way that they have been underestimated for 150 years, as simple, illiterate people of the land. Read Miner's book, and you will soon find out that Kansans are quite the opposite! Miner's book is written with the erudition that Kansans deserve. This is a fine book, a fitting history of Kansas for Kansans, and for others.
Historians will always bicker about each other's work, sometimes jealously, sometimes with clear reason. I cannot say that Mr. Fitzgerald is jealous, but he certainly did not make his argument with clear reason!
Rating:
Summary: Kansas a pivotal state in American history
Review: This is the best comprehensive book on Kansas history. It reminds us that Kansas is important, a pivotal player in American history. A whole variety of movements----the anti-slavery movement, women's suffrage, Prohibition, Populism and other key movements blossomed in Kansas.
While most history books concentrate of when things happened, Miner concentrates on why things happened and what their impact was on America.
Miner's prose is remarkable, but he also allows characters from the past tell their own stories with eye-catching quotations from newspapers, politicians, and common everyday Kansans.
While many consider Kansas backwards, Miner reminds us that Kansas was on the cutting edge of many progressive issues. Always a land of extremes, Kansas also had it's share of reactionary movements.
The whole nation had it's eyes focused on Kansas many times in the past, waiting to see which way the rest of the country would turn on issues like slavery and women's suffrage, with Kansas leading the way.
Rating: 
Summary: A Reviewers Reevaluation
Review: With much anticipation, I waited for this book to be released. There has been no general historical monograph of Kansas since Robert Richmond's Kansas, A Land of Contrasts, back in the mid-1970's. Kansas is overdue for a new basic history. My original review of this book gave it 1 star. Since that time I have had the opportunity to read the volume a couple of times and my original comments may have been too harsh. The book does go indepth into areas which have not been addressed by other state monographs, especially with regard to civil rights movements in the 1960's and especially important issues of the last 30 years in the later chapters. Miner's evaluations of recent political changes in the last chapters was also quite thought-provoking. My original argument regarding the organization of this history remains and keeps me from giving it 5 stars. There is an enormous amount of information contained here and it needed, for lack of a better word, more user-friendly organization, maybe even some side-bars where the author could have more freedom to digress in related topics. This volume was meant for a scholarly audience and it will appeal quite well to this relatively small percentage of Kansans and deserves four stars. Whether this book will attract a sizable number of non-scholarly Kansans remains to be seen. This is not meant as a derogatory remark, merely a realistic observation. With regard to its chosen audience, however, it appears to be successful. With regard to illustrations, maps, and graphs, I would have enjoyed seeing more. Why not show off a little bit of Kansas visually? The photographs dept of the KSHS has several hundred thousand images and over 10,000 pertinent maps. Why was this valuable resource underutilized? To address Mr Avid, there is certainly no jealousy involved as I am not a historian nor a college professor and I write about subjects that I have an interest in pursuing. I own every book that Miner has authored and have enjoyed his previous works very much. My expectations with regard to this book were apparently unrealistic-- I was expecting a bigger and better model of Land of Contrasts. This book will help to alter the image of Kansas in a positive way among academics in other states who have an image of Kansas as a flat, dull lifeless place. The details outlined in Miner's book portray a far more complex state of mind than the outside world realizes. That is a good thing.
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