Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
May 2002
Abstract
In the beginning was land. Lots of land. "Before there was a welfare state, there was a frontier state," which distributed land in hopes of ending poverty. Dream a Little explores what Dorothee Kocks calls the "geographic embrace": the dream that nature has a moral function and offers "a blueprint to a good society." The first part of her book examines the frontier state, finding many similarities with the welfare state. Most Americans seem blind to the parallels, believing that nature and land are good; land is a "birthright," and a homestead is not a handout. "Asking for land is not asking for welfare."
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 2 (Spring 2002). Published by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Copyright © 2000 Center for Great Plains Studies. Used by permission.