Start with high-confidence midwest history books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
Once Upon a Town
Bob Greene
The Children's Blizzard
David Laskin
Pullman
stanley buder
The Devil in the White City
Erik Larson
Prairyerth
William Least Heat-Moon
Storm Lake
Art Cullen
Little Heathens
Mildred Armstrong Kalish
Pioneer Girl
Andrea Warren
Birch Coulie
John Christgau
The Opposite of Cold
Michael Nordskog
Vikings in the Attic
Eric Dregni
Dodge City
Tom Clavin
The Poisoned City
Anna Clark
A Biography of a Mountain
Matthew Davis
The Living Great Lakes
Jerry Dennis
Dream Town
Laura Meckler
Once in a Great City
David Maraniss
The Nebraska Sandhills
Monica Norby, Judy Diamond
The Pioneers
David McCullough
Mysterious Chicago
Adam Selzer
The Broken Heart of America
Walter Johnson
The Chicago Way
Michael Gebert
A Brief History of the Midwest
Andrew Grace
Something Big
Patrick Wohl
