Regional family patterns; the Middle Western family.

Peopled by both easterners and southerners, the Middle West developed a culture that embodied elements from both groups. The East contributed leadership and an ordered community life; the South, a desire for social liberty. The combination of these qualities in a productive land led to the development of a middel-class society, solidly anchored in secure, conservative, self-satisfied middle-class families. The essentially rural character of the Middle West has developed independent, semipatriarchial families. Immigrant families have come to the cities, but in quantities that can be absorbed.