Table of Contents

Introduction

 1         The Villasur Expedition

 2         Old Bellevue

 3         The Oregon Trail

 4         The Kansas-Nebraska Act

 5         The Pony Express

 6         Daniel Freeman and Homesteading

 7         Nebraska statehood and the First Governor

 8         The Fight for the Capital

 9         Red Cloud and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868

10        The Union Pacific Railroad

11        The Murder of Crazy Horse at Fort Robinson

12        The Trial of Standing Bear

13        Buffalo Bill Cody and the Wild West Show

14        The Great Nebraska Migration

15        J. Sterling Morton and Arbor Day

16        The Blizzard of ‘88

17        William Jennings Bryan and Agrarian Protest

18        The Rise of Omaha

19        Charles E. Bessey and the Nebraska National Forest

20        General John J. Pershing and World War I

21        Fr. Edward Flanagan, the Abbott Sisters, and Nebraska’s Children

22        The Influenza Epidemic of 1918 and Nebraska’s Doctors

23        Meyer v. Nebraska (1923)

24        Willa Cather and her Pulitzer Prize

25        The Nebraska State Capitol, Great Plains Icon

26        Nebraska’s Would-be Vice Presidents

27        The Pound Family

28        Nebraska’s Literary Renaissance

29        George W. Norris and the Unicameral

30        The Nebraska Home Front and World War II

31        Nebraska’s Visual Feast

32        Nebraska’s Scientists

33        Offutt Air Force Base

34        The Ogallala Aquifer

35        Leaders in the Making: Omaha’s Gerald Ford and Malcolm X

36        Becoming Madame Governor

37        The University of Nebraska Football Champions

38        The Murder of Brandon Teena

Promotional Information

Classic account of defining Nebraska moments

About the Author

Donald R. Hickey is a professor of history at Wayne State College. Susan A. Wunder is an associate professor of education at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. John R. Wunder is a professor of history and journalism at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Reviews

“Each chapter in Nebraska Moments opens with a facet of the state's past and gracefully broadens the horizon to reveal the timeless implications of the initial story. Here are the sagas of people of all backgrounds who over nearly three centuries have made Nebraska's history. Every state ought to have such a book!”—Harl A. Dalstrom, coauthor of Upstream Metropolis: An Urban Biography of Omaha and Council Bluffs

“Reading Nebraska Moments gives one an accurate perception that the state has—and continues to reflect—a very diverse past, present, and future.”—Miguel A. Carranza, professor of sociology and ethnic studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

“This new edition of Nebraska Moments offers hours of reading pleasure about Nebraska’s rich and often quirky history. From ill-conceived military campaigns to English-language-only responses to immigrants to savvy political women, the Wunders remind us that today's newspaper headlines have their origins in our past.”—Jane Renner Hood, executive director, Nebraska Humanities Council

"This is a fun way to soak up local history."—Carol Bicak, Omaha World-Herald