Annals of Iowa
Subscribe to the Annals of Iowa, a thought-provoking history journal that will satisfy even the most serious explorer of Iowa's past. Published quarterly, the Annals of Iowa examines the deeds, misdeeds, and accomplishments of our predecessors and shows you how those actions fit into the larger mosaic of Iowa's past.
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Read digital issues of the Annals of Iowa from 1863–Winter 2015.
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Table of Contents
Third Series, Vol. 76, No. 1, Winter 2017
Iowa’s Last Liquor Battle: Governor Harold E. Hughes and the Liquor-by-the Drink Conflict
By Jerry Harrington
Jerry Harrington, an independent historian, narrates the effort by Harold E. Hughes—in his campaign for governor in 1962 and during his first year in office—to legalize liquor by the drink in Iowa. Harrington situates the debate as the culmination of more than a century of political conflict in Iowa over access to alcohol. This “last liquor battle” in Iowa also marked the rising influence of Iowa’s urban interests after the longtime dominance of the state’s political life by rural interests.
The Origins of the Iowa Development Commission: Agricultural Transformation and Industrial Development in Mid–Twentieth Century Iowa
By Keith Orejel
Keith Orejel, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri, describes the origins of the Iowa Development Commission (IDC) during and after World War II. He shows how the IDC, the first permanent state agency dedicated primarily to promoting industrialization in the state, marked an important institutional breakthrough in the history of government sponsorship of rural industrialization, and he argues that the emergence of the IDC was directly linked to the agricultural transformation occurring in the state during those years.
Local 1’s Unionism and the Transformation of Iowa’s Politics, 1939–1970
By Wilson J. Warren
Wilson J. Warren, rofessor and chair of the Department of History at Western Michigan University, shows how, as Local 1 of the United Packinghouse Workers of America in Ottumwa moved beyond plant bargaining into a larger political struggle for greater power in local and state politics after World War II, it helped spur a transformation of Iowa’s political culture from solid Republicanism to competitive two-party status.
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Article Submissions
You are invited to submit articles, edited documents, and other annotated, unpublished primary materials on Iowa history and on subjects concerning the nation and the Midwest with an Iowa focus. Regional and local studies of political, economic, social, cultural, ethnic, institutional, archeological, and architectural history are welcome.
You may also apply to the Research Grant for Authors program to receive a research stipend to support original research and interpretive writing related to Iowa history. As part of the program, grant recipients produce an annotated manuscript targeted for the Annals of Iowa.
