In a conversation with radio host Frank Stasio, Michael Lansing, history professor and chair of the history department at Â̲čÖ±˛Ą, explores the beginnings of processed food in America. Lansing takes a step back to the 1870’s, the root of the industrial food take off in the diet of Americans.

He identified processed meat, canned food, and carbohydrates as the three primary sectors in this new diet. Lansing touched on some factors that affected the change of diets, declaring that intensive marketing campaigns convinced consumers to believe industrial food was better for their lifestyle. Cheap railroad transportation and the negotiations made by mass producers allowed them to sell at a cheaper price than local makers. In the early 20th century, more people began to move from rural to urban areas, which reduced the opportunity to farm their own food, making industrial food more reliable, explains Lansing.

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Michael Lansing

Lansing is a historian of the modern United States, and his research focuses on political history, environmental history, and other topics. In his Community Voices commentary, Lansing argued that the state of American democracy and milestones occurring in 1979 are similar to current events.

Read, “” on the MinnPost site.

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Lansing describes the League as a grassroots organization started by farmers who were discontent with large grain milling and transportation corporations in the region. He told MPR News host Tom Weber that The Nonpartisan League is the reason for the large number of co-operatives in North Dakota today, and the party was comprised of farmers who sought candidates that supported their platforms, regardless of party.

Listen to:  (14 minutes) on the MPR site.

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Lansing’s book details the history of the Nonpartisan League, a political movement active in North Dakota, neighboring states, and some Canadian provinces in the early 1900s. The interview is on the PPT website.

Additionally, Lansing wrote an article for MinnPost that examines the trend of comparing the current sociopolitical climate with the “Gilded Age” of the late 19th century. He argues that the results of recent presidential primaries in New Hampshire, which overwhelmingly rejected candidates viewed as having ties to the political establishment, reflect an important change in voter attitudes.

“American voters now believe they are living in a second Gilded Age,” he writes. “This shift has the potential to transform our nation’s politics.” He adds that regardless of the final outcomes of the nomination processes, this change is a noteworthy signifier of Americans’ rejection of the status quo.

Watch on the Pioneer Public Television site.

Read on the MinnPost site.

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Lansing said that since North Dakota returned to the caucus system in 1935, the state “has even less of a role in primary races than ever.”

He added, “The same is true of many Upper Midwest states.”

Read: on the Forum website.

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Lansing describes the League as a grassroots organization started by Midwestern farmers in 1915 who were getting “ripped-off” by the large grain milling and transportation corporations in the region.

“I know that’s pretty strong language,” he said. “But if you look at the evidence in retrospect, it’s rather true.”

Listen to: (13 minutes) on the SDPB Radio site.

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The book details the history of the Nonpartisan League, a political movement active in North Dakota, neighboring states, and some Canadian provinces in the early 1900s.

Read: on the Forum site.

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Watch: on Prairie Public Broadcasting’s YouTube channel.

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The Historyapolis Project (Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý) was created when Delegard, a current scholar-in-residence at Augsburg College, realized that her hometown of Minneapolis was blind to its own tumultuous history, more comfortable planning for the future than confronting the past. Augsburg students are deeply involved with the project, which aims to make the city’s history accessible and helps catalyze community dialogue around challenging aspects of local history.

Delegard holds a doctorate in history from Duke University and is the author of “Battling Miss Bolsheviki: The Origins of Female Conservatism in the United States” (Penn, 2012).  Delegard was also the co-editor, with Nancy A. Hewitt, for the two-volume textbook “Women, Families and Communities: Readings in American History“ (Longman Publishing, 2008). As part of the Historyapolis Project, Delegard is at work on a new history of Minneapolis, which is tentatively titled “City of Light and Darkness: The Making of a Progressive Metropolis in Minneapolis.”

Lansing, associate professor and chair of Augsburg’s Department of History, is the project’s principal investigator. Born and raised born in the Twin Cities, Lansing’s current project is “The Mill City: Minneapolis and the Making of America’s Food,” a history of the city’s central role in the creation and propagation of industrial food across the globe. His books include “Insurgent Democracy: The Nonpartisan League in North American Politics” (Chicago, 2015) and the co-authored “The American West: A Concise History” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008). As a proponent of participatory democratic work, Lansing remains an active public historian. His many experiences include an oral history project with the Minnesota chapter of the Sierra Club, a congregational history, and bringing the Historyapolis Project to Augsburg.

Named after the director of research at the Wisconsin Historical Society from 1947 to 1965 who authored six books and numerous articles on the state’s history, the Alice Smith prize honors a public history project that contributes to broader public reflection and appreciation of the region’s past.

The members of this year’s Smith Prize committee are chair Aaron Shapiro of the University of North Carolina Charlotte, Amy Tyson of DePaul University, and Jeff Manuel of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

“In its first year, nominations for the Smith Prize highlighted the growing strength and vitality of public history work across the region,” said Shapiro. “My fellow committee members Jeff Manuel, Amy Tyson and I found the Historyapolis project’s integration of public history, undergraduate teaching, ability to share authority, effective use of social media and community engagement particularly compelling and acknowledge the vital contribution it makes toward fostering dialogue about the Twin Cities’ past, present and future.”

The Smith Prize committee will open nominations for the 2015 prize before the end of the year.

for more information.

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According to the announcement, Lansing’s book gives a historical account of the Nonpartisan League, a political movement active from 1915 to 1920 as a means of limiting corporate influence in politics in favor of an empowered citizenship. Lansing argues that the League’s success and collapse offer valuable lessons that are applicable to popular movements in modern politics.

The event will take place on November 19 at the Montevideo Chippewa County Public Library.

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