Introduction : what is the nation, at heart?
Between place and space : the pioneering politics of locality
Meat in the middle : converging borderlands in the U.S. Midwest
Hog-tied : the roots of the modern American empire
The isolationist capital of America : hotbed of alliance politics
Flownover states : the view from the middle of everything
Home, land, security : exile, dispossession, and loss
Conclusion : the nation, at heart.
