Jon Lauck has worked on his latest book since 2002, but the seeds were planted in a Madison elementary classroom.
Prairie Republic: The Political Culture of Dakota Territory, 1879-1889 is Lauck’s third book. In it, Lauck looks at the values and principles of Dakota Territory settlers and the integral role they played in shaping South Dakota.
“I’d been interested in South Dakota as far back as 4th grade in Madison where they taught South Dakota history,” Lauck said, a 1989 Madison High School graduate. “A lot of the history I learned early on came from [St. Thomas School teacher] Anne Lange.”
Lauck will give a talk on the book May 17 at 7 p.m. at the Madison Public Library as part of the Madison Area Arts Council Chautauqua Series. The event is free and open to the public.
“Prairie Republic focuses on Dakota Territory’s formative decade and examines the dominant political and social forces at work in the territory,” a press release says of the book.
During his professional career, Lauck saw a need for a better account of the history of Dakota Territory. When he researched South Dakota’s constitution for a project while he practiced law, and again when he looked for materials for a South Dakota history course he taught at South Dakota State University, Lauck was surprised to find little information about the beginnings of the state. In fact, he came across only one book at SDSU that discussed Dakota Territory history. That book, titled Dakota Territory by Howard Lamar, was published in 1956. It was written at a different time when historians looked at different questions, Lauck said.
“It was time to update the story of the Dakota Territory,” he said.
“When Lamar wrote his book in the 1940s, he was very much influenced by the historical accounts that were being produced in the 1930s,” Lauck said.
Those accounts from the ‘30s were often critical of the settlement of the West and of early 20th century historian Frederick Jackson Turner and his Frontier Thesis.
Lauck did much of his research for Prairie Republic at Yale University, where he was able to work with Lamar.
“It was a very productive experience. Howard is a very generous and helpful historian. He wants younger scholars to succeed and write good history,” Lauck said.
In his preface for Prairie Republic, Lauck says another reason for writing this book “stems from our collective need to take American democratic institutions more seriously.”
“In its third century, the American republic is home to alarming levels of doubt and discord. At such a time, it is valuable to ponder the moments of the republic’s history that can become sources of hope,” Lauck writes in his preface.
The cover of Prairie Republic pays homage to such sources of inspiration. Pictured on the front is a Grand Army of the Republic parade that honored Civil War veterans. It took place on Phillips Avenue in Sioux Falls in 1890.
Lauck noted that many Union veterans settled in Dakota Territory. They were active in territorial politics and in the constitutional conventions.
“These Civil War veterans were a big part of the settlement of Dakota Territory,” he said.
Lauck received the Ernest M. Teagarden Professional Scholarship Award in April at the 42nd Annual Dakota History Conference at Augustana College for his paper “The Influence of Lincoln’s Midwest on South Dakota.”
Lauck now resides in Sioux Falls and is a Senior Advisor to U.S. Senator John Thune. Lauck’s parents, Dale and Pat Lauck, still live in Madison.
MAAC meetings are held the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at The BrickHouse Community Arts Center at 106 S.E. 2nd St. in Madison.
