Why was Michigan so Republican in the 1920s?

[Torie]

It has a lot to do with the patterns of the Yankee diaspora [migrants whose first ancestors settled in New England). The Yankees were the Pub base back in the 1920’s, as it had been since the time of Lincoln. All of Michigan was in that diaspora zone:



The map appears in this chapter.  Yes, I know, we think of Germans when we think of Wisconsin, and Scandinavians, when we think of Minnesota. They came later. When I have time, I am going to listen to all the podcasts. I love this stuff.

Oh, here is a more accurate map of the reach of the Yankee diaspora, which also happens to be the zone that is littered even to this day, with small liberal arts colleges (many of which being of very high quality), almost all of which were founded by Yankees. New Englanders had the highest literacy rate on the planet back then, and valued education.

[Torie]

Why is Ontario part of "The Midlands"?

I think Midlands means a mixed bag of Yankees and other northern European ethnic groups.

[Torie]

I thought Midlands meant the Pennsylvania stream.

I stand corrected. I made a guess (it was not really explained in what I linked). Muon2 actually read the book, so he really knows. I think the split of Iowa in the second map is about right. The two southern tiers of counties are quite different than what is north of there. And the soil is not as good either. It starts going downhill at the southern end of Madison County actually. Yankees tended to go where the soil was good among other things. They might have been intolerant, but they were not stupid. Granted, the Dutch were the best at that. That's why they grabbed Sioux County in Iowa, which has the highest farmland prices in Iowa outside of the rural parts of Scott County.