History

David Danbom's Our Purpose is to Serve is a probing, insightful and lively history of the first hundred years of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station.

Pacing Dakota is a collection of essays reflecting on the history and culture of the Great Plains of North America. University Distinguished Professor Thomas D. Isern, with more than forty years as a working historian and regional author, transitions from the close confines of historical archives into the prairie landscapes of the northern plains. Pacing Dakota speaks with the mingled voices of scholarly historian, outdoor sportsman, culinary enthusiast, lifelong Lutheran, and prairie farmboy. The author prowls prairie churches, finds forgotten artifacts, and gathers cherished stories from Williston to Wahpeton and points beyond. He situates his encounters along the way into the canon of literary and historical writing on the prairies. In the end, he speaks for a generation committed to making a good life in this place. 264 pp. 17 photos. Hardcover.

From the 1880s to the 1930s, at least 34 "prairie palaces" of one sort or another sprang up in at least 24 towns across the Midwest. Their themes ranged in scope from grasses to grains to minerals, but all sought the same goal - attention! Evans' book attempts to tackle many unanswered questions surrounding the successes and failures of each palace and community.

By: Rod Evans

Usher L. Burdick was a powerful and colorful character in North Dakota's political history. Blackorby has written a fascinating and valuable analysis of the forces at work in Usher Burdick's public and private history.

By: E.C. Blackorby.

This book offers a history of the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District and the role of science, in what was largely a politically based problem.

By: Jay Leitch.