Review of Nebraska Moments: Glimpses of Nebraska\u27s Past

Nebraska Moments, by Donald Hickey, professor of history at Wayne State College in Nebraska, is a collection of thirty-nine essays about the state\u27s past. The essays, which range in length from six to twelve pages, discuss personalities, institutions, places, and events that have shaped the state\u27s history. Biographical sketches of such political figures as David Butler (Nebraska\u27s first Governor), J. Sterling Morton, William Jennings Bryan, and George W. Norris; western and military heroes such as Buffalo Bill Cody and John J. Pershing; Native Americans such as Red Cloud and Standing Bear; and intellectual figures such as Louise Pound, Willa Cather, Mari Sandoz, John G. Neihardt, and Loren Eiseley capture both the character and the distinctiveness of a number of leading personalities who have contributed to Nebraska\u27s social, political, and cultural heritage. Essays on the founding of old Bellevue, the Oregon Trail, Fort Kearny, the KansasNebraska Act, the Pony Express, Nebraska statehood, Fort Robinson, the Union Pacific Railroad, homesteading, Nebraska\u27s ethnic heritage, doctors and disease in the nineteenth century, the rise of Omaha, Arbor Day, the blizzard of 1888, the Nebraska National Forest, agrarian protest, World War I, Boys Town, the development of the Nebraska State Capitol, the unicameral legislature, Nebraska\u27s POW camps during World War II, Offutt Air Force Base, and the High Plains aquifer, focus on themes and events that illuminate Nebraska\u27s frontier heritage, its rich cultural diversity, the rise of urban centers, and the role Nebraska has played in the general development of the United States