150 best Minnesota books #3, #4, and #5: Three state histories

by Patrick Coleman, Minnesota Historical Society • April 24, 2008 •

Many years ago I thought I had invented a wonderful little icebreaker. I asked friends, colleagues, and strangers at cocktail parties (ok, they were keggers) this question; “if you were banished forever from Minnesota but had time to grab a book or two, which ones would you take to help you remember the place you love?” (When you come from Irish rebels it is easier to imagine banishment than the more traditional “stranded on a desert island” scenario.) Thinking this would be a good way to begin a discussion of not only books but of what one loves about Minnesota, I was appalled that few people had an answer.

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Well, folks, this blog is the place to remedy that. Plus it is always nice to have some time to think about the question rather than being blindsided by some know-it-all snot at a party. Let us know what your favorites are, and if you want to pair them with an alcoholic beverage and a piece of music, knock yourself out.

Three more of Minnesota’s 150 best books are:

Edward D. Neil The History of Minnesota; From the Earliest French Explorations to the Present Time. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1858

William Watts Folwell History of Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1921 – 1930.

Theodore C. Blegen Minnesota: A History of the State. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1963.

It almost seems like a joke that there was a history of the state the year it was born, but it is really not that unusual for contemporaries to write history. Neil, serious about the subtitle’s statement “present time,” updated the book through five editions adding 338 pages of newly discovered stories and information to the growing appendixes. The added vignettes have wonderful titles such as, “An Effeminate Man” and “A Nose Bitten Off.” Collectors will want to try to acquire the limited, large-paper first edition for their shelves.

Folwell’s work is monumental. The amount of detail is overwhelming. In fact, Professor Norman Moen once told me that I would know more Minnesota history than almost anyone else if I just read the footnotes in this book. Try that; it is totally true! Collectors will want to have the ¾ leather bound limited edition and the 1950’s reprint.

Professor Blegen’s book seems quite dated now, but it is important for providing a one-volume history that, along with its author, facilitated resurgence in the study of local history. Taken together these three books also provide a case study in historiography.

Exiled? I’ll take Folwell, a cup of Pig’s Eye Parrant’s moonshine, and the fife and drums of Ol’ Fort Snelling. Maybe.