Editing Midwestern United States (section)

===Politics 1860s–1920s===
The Midwest was a battleground for political and economic issues after the Civil War, with voters splitting along ethnic and religious lines rather than class. The [[Temperance movement in the United States|temperance]], [[Greenback Party|Greenback]], and [[Populist movement (United States, 19th Century)|populist]] movements gained attention in the region, with [[Pietism|pietists]] supporting the Republicans and ritualists backing the Democrats. [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] was a major issue in the Midwest, with both the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union|Women's Christian Temperance Union]] and the [[Anti-Saloon League]] originating in the region. The [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|18th Amendment]] was ratified by most Midwestern state legislatures, but the Midwest also became a center of resistance to Prohibition, with ethnic, urban Catholic and German Lutheran voters supporting repeal while native-born, rural pietistic Protestant Midwesterners opposed it.<ref>Michael Kazin, ed. ''The concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American political history'' (2011) p 347.</ref><ref>Richard Jensen, The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896'' (1971).''</ref>

====Women====
The presence of women in the Midwest public stage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries aligned with the growing movements for women's rights and prohibition. Women's activism was often presented as an extension of their domestic cleaning role. Activists at the local and state level used the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]]'s crusade against alcohol, as a way to push for the right to vote. Midwestern states began allowing women to vote before the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]] was passed, and the leader of the campaign for the suffrage amendment was [[Carrie Chapman Catt]] from Iowa. The 1970s feminist movement also had Midwestern roots, with [[Betty Friedan]] from Illinois writing ''The Feminine Mystique'' in 1963. Economic necessity and the desire for a career also drove women to work outside the home, and certain occupations such as teaching and nursing became feminized.<ref>Michael Kazin, ed. ''The concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American political history'' (2011) pp. 347–348.</ref>

====Workers and Populists====
[[File:Debs Canton 1918 large.jpg|thumb|[[Eugene V. Debs]] speaking in [[Canton, Ohio]], in 1918, being arrested for [[sedition]] shortly thereafter.]]
The Midwest saw labor unrest and rebellion against the capitalist economic order, with strikes in Chicago in 1887 and 1894. Labor leaders organized a protest meeting at [[Haymarket Square (Chicago)|Haymarket Square]] in Chicago in 1886, where a bomb was thrown among police and eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy for murder, an event known as the [[Haymarket affair]]. The [[Pullman Strike|Pullman Strike of 1894]] was a shutdown of most rail traffic in the Midwest and West. It turned violent and was broken by federal troops. [[Eugene V. Debs]], leader of the striking [[American Railway Union]], went to prison where he converted to Socialism. His version of socialism appealed to some immigrant groups but was too radical for most Midwesterners.<ref>Nick Salvatore, ''Eugene V. Debs: citizen and socialist'' (U of Illinois Press, 1982).</ref>

Farmers distrusted big business and adopted cooperative arrangements, such as those offered by the [[National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry|Grange]] in the 1870s or the [[Farmers' Alliance]] in the 1890s. They wanted cooperatives controlled by farmers to handle farm products, a reduction in rail freight rates, and the coining of silver money to raise prices. The Alliance turned to political action with the creation of the [[People's Party (United States)|Populist Party]] in 1892. It had local success in the wheat belt and silver mining areas. This venture as a third party was short-lived and they fused with the Democrats in 1896 and voted for Democrat [[William Jennings Bryan]]. Leftwing rural politics continued in the 20th century in the Dakotas and Minnesota with the [[Farmer-Labor party]]<ref>Kazin, ed. ''The concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American political history'' (2011) pp. 348–349.</ref>