Hoosier Hysterical: How the west became the midwest, without moving at all

“The problem with history isn’t that it’s not interesting; it’s that it’s not made interesting. For instance, all too often history classes stress memorizing dates, although I must admit those are the only dates I got in high school.” So Mark R Hunter begins his attempt to make history funny, even if it makes history teachers roll over in their graves (hopefully not while they’re still alive). With his wife Emily, Hunter goes on an off-the-wall, Indy 500-style race though the past, from Paleo-Indians through the Northwest Territory, the formation of the state, wars, and the ongoing struggle of people against their environment and each other. Hunter tackles everything from A to W … which in this case means Paleo-armadillos (“look it up—they were huge”) to Wayne, as in Mad Anthony (“Mad was his first name. You have to wonder what Mad Anthony Wayne’s mother was thinking, back when women in labor didn’t get the good drugs“). Along the way we encounter killers, heroes, trivia, claims to fame, and of course, Johnny Appleseed. It’s all as American as sugar cream pie—Indiana’s state pie, thanks to the efforts of a hard-working state General Assembly. So sit back and have some fun … and if you accidentally learn something along the way, at least it will be painless.