Regional Sociology Commons^™

“It Don’T Look Natural”: St. Louis Smoke Abatement In 1906, David L. Straight

The Confluence (2009-2020)

In this regular feature about postal history, Straight examines efforts at reducing smog—smoke abatement, at the time—using a 1906 card and coal company letterhead as a springboard.

“Barbarous Custom Of Dueling”: Death And Honor On St. Louis’ Bloody Island, Mark Alan Neels

The Confluence (2009-2020)

Neels argues that the Army Corps of Engineers inadvertently dealt the final death blow to dueling in the region when it eliminated “Bloody Island,” a sandbar in the Mississippi River which became a favorite venue for duels.

The Illinois & St. Louis Bridge: An Engineering Marvel, Scribner's Magazine

The Confluence (2009-2020)

This reprint of an 1871 article from Scribner’s Magazine extols the new Illinois and St. Louis Bridge (Eads Bridge today) as an engineering marvel—which, incidentally, it was.

The Strange Case Of The Courts, A Car, And The 1910 Batting Title, Steven Gietschier

The Confluence (2009-2020)

Ty Cobb and Napoleon Lajoie were fighting for the 1910 American League batting title right down to the end of the season. Who won was under dispute, and it landed the St. Louis Browns in court. Gietschier looks at the case files involving the Browns manager who was fired over accusations that he tried to let Lajoie win the title—and a new car.

The Intermountain West Today: A Regional Survey, Ruy Teixeira, Karlyn Bowman

Brookings Mountain West Publications

What does it mean to live in the Intermountain West today? What issues are most and least important to the region’s residents? Do Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah have a collective identity or are state-level differences too great? Is there an identifiable Intermountain West personality? Today we will present the results of a unique survey that attempts to answer these questions.

Unlv / Brookings West: Intermountain West Region Regional Survey, University Of Nevada Las Vegas, Brookings Institute

Brookings Mountain West Publications

The 2010 Intermountain West Public Opinion Survey documents responses from 2,000 residents of the Intermountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah). Gerstein | Agne Strategic Communications conducted the survey from August 23 – September 1, 2010. A minimum of 250 respondents for each state are included in the results for this survey. Respondents included 1,700 landline interviews and 300 cell phone interviews. Gerstein | Agne Strategic Communications provides strategic planning, communications, project management, and research services to a wide range of non-profit organizations, Fortune 500 companies, and candidates for elected office.

The survey includes an extensive series …

Using The American Community Survey To Build A Dashboard Of Regional Economic Indicators, Randall W. Eberts

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Preservation Ethics In The Case Of Nebraska's Nationally Registered Historic Properties, Darren Michael Adams

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation focuses on the National Register of Historic Places and considers the geographical implications of valuing particular historic sites over others. Certain historical sites will either gain or lose desirability from one era to the next, this dissertation identifies and explains three unique preservation ethical eras, and it maps the sites which were selected during those eras. These eras are the Settlement Era (1966–1975), the Commercial Architecture Era (1976–1991), and the Progressive Planning Era (1992–2010). The findings show that transformations in the program included an early phase when state authorities listed historical resources pertaining to the settlement of the …

Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter: South Dakota’S Medically Uninsured, Jake Cummings

Census Data Center Newsletter Archive: 2007-2010

The status of our nation’s healthcare system has received a considerable amount of attention, particularly over the past two years. One of the most commonly cited areas of concern among stakeholders, such as the Kaiser Foundation, is the number of uninsured individuals nationwide.
In 2008, the Kaiser Family Foundation stated that the percentage of employers providing health insurance decreased from 69% to 60% (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation 2008). Kaiser cited increasing premiums as a primary cause of health coverage being dropped. The Kaiser Foundation added that the uninsured “are four times more likely to delay or forgo needed …

Understanding Very High Rates Of Young Child Poverty In The South, Marybeth J. Mattingly, Catherine Turcotte-Seabury

Carsey Publications

It is widely known that the South is home to some of the places with the highest rates of child poverty. To address the many challenges poor families face there, policy makers and community leaders need to understand the complex factors that converge in this region of the United States. This brief presents an analysis of and state-by-state data to help readers understand high child poverty in the South.

The Journey Of The Sisters Of Charity To St. Louis, 1828, Carole Prietto

The Confluence (2009-2020)

In 1828, four Sisters of Charity left Maryland to establish a new mission in the frontier city of St. Louis. For the first time, herein is the diary of one of the travelers in this remarkable and dangerous journey.

Cash For Clunkers: Did It Work Or Not?, Anthony Clark, Annette Najjar, Ralph Wiedner

The Confluence (2009-2020)

The Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 (CARS) was supposed to stimulate the American economy with incentives to trade in old gas-guzzling cars for new, more efficient ones. Three economists examine the impact of this program that came to be called “Cash for Clunkers” on the St. Charles County, Missouri, economy.

America’S First Interstate—The National Road And Its Reach Toward St. Clair County, Illinois, Andrew Theising

The Confluence (2009-2020)

The National Road was to span from Maryland to the Mississippi River, but never made it—in part due to a political battle over the location of the new Illinois state capital in the 1830s.

Spring/Summer 2010, Full Issue

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

St. Louis: Air Mail Pioneer, David Straight

The Confluence (2009-2020)

In the decades after the Wright Brothers launched their first plane at Kitty Hawk, St. Louis was an aviation hub. Within a decade after that flight, the first airmail left Kinloch Field in St. Louis, with people sending what they knew were historic letters.

How Natural Is Nature? The Effect Of Burning On Presettlement Vegetation In West-Central Illinois, Paul Kilburn, Richard C. Brugam

The Confluence (2009-2020)

When the first Euroamericans arrived in North America, they thought they were seeing a “wilderness,” unaltered by human hands. However, they were actually seeing highly managed environments. Kilburn and Brugam examine the impact of the burning of forests and prairies by Native Americans on the plant species in west-central Illinois.

From The Editor, Jeffrey Smith

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter: Birth And Infant Mortality In South Dakota, Saileza Khatiwada, Jake Cummings, Diane Kayongo-Male

Census Data Center Newsletter Archive: 2007-2010

The joy of birth and the sorrow of losing a newborn are profoundly personal experiences. Still, to some extent, both infant births and deaths are associated with numerous social and environmental factors. These factors include maternal health and level of access to, and quality of, health care (MacDorman and Mathews 2008). Moreover, infant mortality has been recognized as a relatively reliable marker of societal well-being (Gortmaker and Wise 1997). Therefore, it is important that we examine infant mortality rates throughout the state of South Dakota.

Sustainable Community Tourism Development: The Case Of Tanzania, Susan Slocum

All Dissertations

This dissertation's objective is to understand the constraints to economic participation by indigenous Tanzanians living in and around current and/or future tourism destinations. Using qualitative methods, this study investigated local perceptions and involvement in tourism economies by comparing independent case studies in three destinations differing in land tenure. Fifteen village-based focus groups were employed in villages around Pangani District (Tanga Region), Amani Nature Reserve (Tanga Region), and Arumeru District (Arusha Region). The purpose of the village-based focus groups was to evaluate local access to physical, financial, human, social, and natural capital as a means to encourage economic participation in the …

Somalian Immigration And Assimilation To Minnesota, Chantae Erickson

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

No abstract provided.