Kansas is as typical of that history as any state. Kansans share common visions, but they also exhibit wide ethnic, religious, and racial diversity. The Exoduster story, including the formation of black colonies on the Kansas grasslands, is virtually without parallel. Mennonites were a special immigrant strain and important to the Kansas texture. These examples could be easily multiplied.
Many topics help explain the Kansas chemistry, but none better than immigration.
Immigration is a topic that can be used in a variety of ways to explain broad principles and concepts, view sweeps of history, and graphically portray family, institutions, and community. With all the opportunities afforded by the topic, Kansas and Great Plains immigrant history has not been a particularly easy subject to teach. This can be explained by bias and misconceptions that have led to the widespread neglect of the Plains immigrant. This is apparent in the omission of that species of immigrant in any textbook that a student in any grade is likely to read. Colorful immigrants with unusual folkways who lived in crowded tenements, worked in sweat shops, and whose descendants ran corporations or led unions are the popular grist of American history textbooks.