The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation welcomed Jon Lauck to the stage to discuss his book The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800–1900.

His book describes a rich civic culture that prized education, literature, libraries, and the arts; developed a stable social order grounded in Victorian norms, republican virtue, and Christian teachings; and generally put democratic ideals into practice to a greater extent than any nation to date.

Jon K. Lauck is the author of several books, including The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History (University of Iowa Press, 2013); From Warm Center to Ragged Edge: The Erosion of Midwestern Regionalism, 1920-1965 (University of Iowa Press, 2017); and The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest (University of Oklahoma Press, 2022). Lauck has worked for several years as a full-time professor, a part-time professor, and a lawyer and is currently serving as an adjunct professor of history and political science at the University of South Dakota and as Editor-in-Chief of Middle West Review. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Iowa and his law degree from the University of Minnesota.