The Annals of Volume 71, Number 2 Iowa Spring 2012 A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF HISTORY In This Issue MATTHEW CECIL, associate professor in the South Dakota State Uni- versity Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, describes the up-and-down relationship between J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and the staff at the Des Moines Register and Tribune and Cowles Publications. Register and Tribune staff, for the most part, kept some editorial distance from the bu- reau and occasionally gently criticized Hoover and the FBI, but at times some of them were willing to flatter Hoover or fit their reporting to FBI public relations rubrics in order to secure access to information. JON K. LAUCK, senior advisor and counsel to U.S. Senator John Thune, offers a portrait of a group of historians he calls “Prairie Historians.” From the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth, those historians, in reaction to a sense that the profession was unduly dominated by east- erners, called attention to the Midwest, toiled to make the region’s histori- cal institutions functional and productive, wrote substantial histories of the region, won Pulitzer Prizes, and focused on the nation’s democratic heritage and prospects. Front Cover The Mississippi Valley Historical Association (MVHA) met in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1932. (The State Historical Society of Iowa’s Benjamin F. Shambaugh is seated just to the right of center in the foreground, with Louis Pelzer across the table from him.) For more on the founders of the MVHA and their contributions to the history of the Midwest, see Jon Lauck’s article in this issue. Image from State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City. Editorial Consultants Rebecca Conard, Middle Tennessee State R. David Edmunds, University of Texas University at Dallas Kathleen Neils Conzen, University of H. Roger Grant, Clemson University Chicago William C. Pratt, University of Nebraska William Cronon, University of Wisconsin– at Omaha Madison Glenda Riley, Ball State University Robert R. Dykstra, State University of Malcolm J. Rohrbough, University of Iowa New York at Albany Dorothy Schwieder, Iowa State University The Annals of Third Series, Vol. 71, No. 2 Spring 2012 Iowa Marvin Bergman, editor Contents 111 “Whoa, Edgar”: The Des Moines Register and Tribune, Cowles Publications, and J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI Matthew Cecil 137 The Prairie Historians and the Foundations of Midwestern History Jon K. Lauck 174 Book Reviews and Notices 204 New on the Shelves 207 Announcements A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF HISTORY FOUNDED IN 1863 Copyright 2012 by the State Historical Society of Iowa ISSN 0003-4827 Book Reviews and Notices 174 THOMAS E. AUGE, Man of Deeds: Bishop Loras and the Upper Mississippi Valley Frontier, by Timothy Walch 175 MICHAEL J. PFEIFER, The Roots of Rough Justice: Origins of American Lynching, by Stacy Pratt McDermott 177 KURT E. LEICHTLE AND BRUCE G. CARVETH, Crusade Against Slavery: Edward Coles, Pioneer of Freedom, by James Simeone 179 TONY HORWITZ, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War, by Galin Berrier 180 MARK A. LAUSE, Price’s Lost Campaign: The 1864 Invasion of Missouri, by Terry L. Beckenbaugh 181 WILLIAM A. DOBAK, Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867, by Donald R. Shaffer 183 BARBARA A. GANNON, The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic, by Sarah J. Purcell 185 GERALD A. DANZER, Illinois: A History in Pictures, by Jane Simonsen 186 STEPHEN J. LAVIN ET AL., Atlas of the Great Plains, by Molly P. Rozum 188 PETER TJERNAGEL HARSTAD, Store Per: Norwegian-American “Paul Bunyan” of the Prairie, by Kathleen Stokker 189 BETTY A. BERGLAND AND LORI ANN LAHLUM, EDS., Norwegian American Women: Migration, Communities, and Identities, by L. DeAne Lagerquist 191 MARCIA C. CARMICHAEL, Putting Down Roots: Gardening Insights from Wisconsin’s Early Settlers, by Jill M. Nussel 192 ELLEN F. STEINBERG AND JACK H. PROST, From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Foodways, by Jill M. Nussel 194 EDWARD JANUS, Creating Dairyland, by Barbara J. Dilly 195 R. ALTON LEE, Principle over Party: The Farmers’ Alliance and Populism in South Dakota, 1880–1900, by Jeff Kolnick 197 SCOTT M. FISHER, Eastern Iowa’s Aviation Heritage, by Jan Olive Full 198 HERBERT HOOVER, Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath, by Glen Jeansonne 200 MARC RASMUSSEN, Six: A Football Coach’s Journey to a National Record, by Terrence J. Lindell 201 W. RAYMOND WOOD, A White-Bearded Plainsman: The Memoirs of Archaeologist W. Raymond Wood, by David Mayer Gradwohl “Whoa, Edgar”: The Des Moines Register and Tribune, Cowles Publications, and J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI MATTHEW CECIL ON FEBRUARY 3, 1951, Louis B. Nichols, the powerful head of the public relations–oriented Crime Records Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sent a memorandum to the bureau’s second-highest–ranking official, Associate Director Clyde Tolson. In his memorandum, Nichols noted that he had met a young Cowles Publications reporter, Clark Mollenhoff. Nichols added that he came away impressed. He noted that in 1945 the Des Moines Special Agent in Charge had reported that Mollenhoff “was awkward, has a colorless personality, and does not appear to be a fluent talker.” The agent thought Mollenhoff would not develop satisfactorily. “Of course six years can make a lot of difference but I got entirely a different impression of Mollenhoff. He, frankly, looked exceedingly good to me.”1 The FBI was not interested in Mollenhoff’s development as a watchdog journalist. Instead, given the FBI’s long-term focus on public relations, it was interested in whether or not it could count on Mollenhoff to withhold criticism of the FBI, to amplify the FBI’s successes, and, in certain circumstances, to come to the 1. Louis B. Nichols, Memorandum to Clyde Tolson, 2/3/1951, FBI file 94-8- 137-94. The research for this article was supported by a grant from the State Historical Society of Iowa. THE ANNALS OF IOWA 71 (Spring 2012). © The State Historical Society of Iowa, 2012. 111 112 THE ANNALS OF IOWA bureau’s defense against critics. For example, just the day before Nichols made his assessment of Mollenhoff, he had written to Tolson regarding public statements by the governors of Iowa and Nebraska, who had been criticizing what they saw as the FBI’s overzealous efforts to circumvent local police jurisdiction. “It seems to me that we should endeavor within the next two days to get up a good story of the Bureau’s coverage and juris- diction pitched from the local angles of Nebraska and Iowa,” Nichols wrote, noting that the FBI had friends in newsrooms in Lincoln and Omaha who would surely help. In a handwritten note on the memo, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover agreed: “I indi- cated some weeks ago a need for just such a story through our whole country.”2 Reporters like Mollenhoff, who represented newspapers in Des Moines and Minneapolis for Cowles Publi- cations, were valuable contacts for FBI public relations officials. Throughout the Hoover era, particularly from 1933 to 1972, the FBI monitored reporters, editors, publishers, and publica- tions and evaluated them based on their willingness and ability to be helpful in amplifying the FBI’s preferred public relations messages.3 In 1959 the bureau compiled a report, “Molders of Public Opinion,” stating the agency’s reasons for monitoring the press: “Looking at the following representative segment of those molding public opinion today, we can raise the question as to whether or not many have made themselves worthy of American ideals so that they may be entrusted with carrying forward human progress and dignity.”4 The “Molders” memorandum focused primarily on the al- leged communist affiliations of high-profile national journalists like I. F. Stone, Walter Lippmann, Drew Pearson, and James A. Wechsler, but the voluminous FBI files on John and Gardner (Mike) Cowles, the Des Moines Register and Tribune, and Clark Mollenhoff and several other key staffers demonstrate that the 2. Louis B. Nichols Memorandum to Clyde Tolson, 2/2/1951, FBI file, unseri- alized. At times, the FBI failed to include a specific serial number on a docu- ment. Files are, however, generally organized in chronological order. Unserial- ized documents may be located within a given file using the date. 3. Using the Freedom of Information Act, I have collected more than 90,000 pages of FBI files on prominent journalists and publications. 4. William C. Sullivan, “Molders of Public Opinion,” Memorandum to Alan H. Belmont, 3/18/1959, FBI file 100-40167-7, iii. Cowles Publications and Hoover’s FBI 113 bureau’s interest in activities of the press extended to regional and local publications as well national ones. The copious detail in the files reveals the lengths to which the FBI would go to build and maintain relationships with me- dia representatives. Incidents when relationships faltered dem- onstrate ongoing evaluations by FBI officials who categorized journalists and publications as friend or foe. And the tenor of correspondence and contacts between the FBI and staff at the Register and Tribune and Cowles Publications offers a glimpse into the ways each side curried favor and sought access to the other.5 A review of these files also provides insight into how Hoover and the FBI viewed legendary journalists with Iowa connections—Mike and John Cowles, Clark Mollenhoff, Wil- liam Wesley Waymack, Richard Lawson Wilson, and others. ACTING against the wishes of Congress, Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte created an investigative bureau within the Justice Department in 1908. Earlier that year, Congress had re- jected an effort to create an investigative agency in the Justice Department, citing fears of centralized police power.6 That con- troversy created an ongoing crisis of legitimacy for the FBI and its precursor agencies, setting it up as a target for critics, par- ticularly during periods when the bureau’s jurisdiction and authority were expanded.