Iowa History 101: A Common Life: A Voice from the Progressive Era

Join Iowa author Sue E Burns on a journey back in time. Her book, A Common Life, is a look back into the daily activities of her great-great-grandmother, an ordinary woman living an ordinary life on a farm in Dallas County, Iowa at the turn of the 20th Century. In the first entry of her diary Mary Ann Briggs describes her existence by saying, "it is but a common life." Looking back from the 21st Century, it may seem anything but. While Mary died in 1922, her voice lives on through the words she left in her diary.

The Iowa History 101 webinars share Iowa stories and the history of the state through a cultural history lens on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. Registration is required for each event and to receive a link to the recorded program.