the center of this belt' was the state of Iowa and we use information from the unique 1915 Iowa State Census to explore … the factors, at both the county and individual levels, that propelled states like Iowa to embrace secondary school … education very early. Iowa's small towns, as well as those across the nation, were the loci of the high school movement. In an …

, employed in a variety of sectors and occupations, from the Iowa State Census of 1915. We find that the returns to a year of … root in America around 1910, even in agricultural areas such as Iowa. Census data for 1940, 1950, and 1960 are used to show …