Title Information
Title
Transcendental Development: A Meditation on the Socioeconomic History of Fairfield, Iowa
Abstract
In spring of 1973, the Southeastern Iowa city of Fairfield lost its beloved Parsons College to bankruptcy. What followed in the coming months was unforeseen: an Indian meditation guru decided to relocate his name-sake Maharishi International University to Fairfield to replace the Parsons campus. Over the 1970s, thousands of followers descended on Fairfield, leaving many self-proclaimed "townies" reeling over the perceived social and religious corruption of their insular, Christian community. Despite this resentment, the meditators cultivated a national reputation for entrepreneurship, and as saviors of a town “ready to blow away.” Yet a deeper look into local history reveals that the meditators did not fundamentally change or save Fairfield. Rather, popular claims to the contrary are part of a narrative perpetuated by meditator and non-meditator alike, tied up in myths of what rural America is and is not. Fairfield, Iowa from the early-1970s onward is at once a story about occluded history and the clash of identity in the rural Midwest.
Name: Personal
Name Part
Lipsey, Adam Z.
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/cre")
creator
Name: Personal
Name Part
Zipp, Samuel
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ths")
thesis advisor
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. History
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2020
Type of Resource
text
Physical Description
digitalOrigin
born digital
Language
Language Term: Text (ISO639-2B) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2.html", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng")
English
Note: thesis
Senior thesis (AB)--Brown University, 2020
Note (displayLabel="Concentration")
History
Genre (aat)
theses
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00912787")
Topic
Entrepreneurship
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01130186")
Topic
Spirituality
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00958235")
Topic
History
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01204155")
Topic
United States
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01218976")
Topic
Iowa--Fairfield
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01101498")
Topic
Rural development
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01154535")
Topic
Transcendental Meditation
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00624156")
Topic
Maharishi International University
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/")
Topic
American history
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01205835")
Topic
Iowa
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/")
Topic
Midwest
Identifier: DOI
10.26300/q8dn-bw35
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
All rights reserved. Collection is open for research.