Pioneers moving into Iowa in the nineteenth century created a distinctly rural culture: family, farm, church, and school were its dominant institutions. After decades of settlement, however, several lively and perceptive generations interpreted their political, economic, and cultural environment--their Iowa--much more imaginatively; they offered such abundant insight, understanding, meaning and mission that they mentally and spiritually recreated Iowa. In Kinship with the Land historian Brad Burns celebrates this intense period of intellectual and cultural development.