All That Grass

Nebraska has spent most of American history being underestimated.

Flat, boring, forgettable. Flyover country.

Which is impressive, considering Nebraska helped feed the nation, fuel westward expansion, shape the Populist movement, host the command center for America’s nuclear arsenal, and quietly become one of the most important agricultural regions on Earth.

In All That Grass, Jordan Blake Carter tells the story of Nebraska from ancient inland seas and Indigenous civilizations to homesteaders, cattle drives, Dust Bowl survivors, Cold War generals, and football fans who treat Memorial Stadium like a cathedral.

Along the way: explorers get lost, politicians lose repeatedly yet still change history, grasshoppers consume entire farms, Buffalo Bill turns the West into theater, and Omaha somehow becomes central to global nuclear strategy.

Funny, deeply researched, and unexpectedly moving, this is a history of Nebraska that finally gives the state the attention it deserves.