Book excerpt: A hundred years ago the great prairie region now comprising the states of Kansas, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota was regarded as unfit for human habitation. As late as the middle of the last century the maps of the United States included it within 'The Great American Desert, ' and successive waves of migration passed it by for what seemed more hospitable lands farther west. But now these prairie states, so completely ignored at first, have become one of the richest sections of the land, the agricultural heart of the country, and the seat, moreover, of a distinctive culture within the general American frame. The background of this culture, the conditions, problems, and struggles of pioneer life on the Sod-House Frontier from 1854 to 1890, is the theme of this important and fascinating book.