Review of The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917. By Jon Gjerde

Although this highlys tructuredb ook is in some respectsn arrowlyb ased, it is also a synthesiso f considerable magnitude that coordinates the thought and research of many historians who, since the late 1960s, have studied the assimilative experiences of European immigrantsin the United States.J on Gjerde, whose first book brilliantlyan alyzed the emigrationf romB alestrand,N orway, to the upper Middle West, now centers on the cultural contrasts and conflictst hate volvedb etween northernE uropean immigrants and native-bornm igrantsf romt he northeasternU nited States as the Middle West was settled in the nineteenth century.