"The sense of place west of the 96th meridian is captured extremely well in this book. Often while reading it, I felt I was transported to western Kansas."—Agricultural History
"This volume brings the high plains to life. . . . For historians of the American West, and particularly Kansas, the stories Miner tells are not atypical, but the freshness and immediacy of his descriptions of so many modest hopes and dreams begin to add up, drawing the sympathetic reader into the network of small town life. This is the crowning achievement of the book. So many factors were beyond the control of western Kansas farmers and businessmen—the climate, railroad connections, wheat prices, federal programs—that the pluck amply illustrated through Miner’s retelling of small town news seems heroic."—American Historical Review
"A major contribution to regional history, describing the relationship between humans and (an often hostile) environment."—Western Historical Quarterly
"In this delightful book, historian Craig Miner narrates the history of western Kansas. . . . Constructing a richly detailed, lively, and thoroughly engaging narrative, Miner draws on extensive research in thirty-five local newspapers and over twenty manuscript collections."—Great Plains Quarterly
"An informative and engaging narrative history, enlivened by numerous examples drawn from contemporary local newspapers and photographs gleaned from archival and personal collections. Highly recommended."—Choice
"Miner paints a complete portrait of a people shaped by their perennial struggle with nature."—Kansas History
"This sequel to West of Wichita took two decades, and the result is well worth the wait. . . . Miner’s passion for the high plains of Kansas add to the substance and eloquence of this excellent narrative history. Miner is sympathetic to the region and understands . . . what makes Western Kansas work. . . . Miner carefully weaves the common threads of the lows and highs of five decades into an intelligible fabric, showing how residents adapted, survived, and became stronger (or left the region) as a result of the experiences. Integrating quotations from newspapers, diaries and letters, Miner lets representative people tell the stories of bad times and good on the farms and in the towns."—Wichita Eagle
“Meticulously researched and beautifully written by an accomplished historian with roots in the region, Next Year Country is a worthy sequel to West of Wichita, Miner’s excellent history of western Kansas during the settlement period. Here, Miner chronicles the economic and social development of this unforgiving land from the drought and political turmoil of the 1890s through agriculture’s short-lived Golden Age of the 1910s and the farm depression and Dust Bowl of the 1920s and 1930s. It is a story that is both sobering and inspiring.”—Hal S. Barron, author of Mixed Harvest: The Second Great Transformation in the Rural North, 1870–1930
“A lively, engaging, and well-written volume that captures the history of western Kansas and Kansans in their own words and on their own terms.”—Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, author of Rooted in Dust: Surviving Drought and Depression in Southwest Kansas
