Midwest

There is no formal definition, so you’ll get many different answers. I generally consider the Midwest to be the northern half of states (those that remained in the Union during the Civil War) that are west of the Appalachian mountains and east of the Mississippi River.

If you look at a map of the pre-2014 Big Ten Conference, you'll see the midwestern states. As far East as Pennsylvia and as far West as Nebraska and technically as far south as Missouri (although Missouri wasn't in the Big Ten).

It was called the west before the colonial expansion further west. Then it became the midwest.

Its classic Americana. Being in the middle of the country it became synonymous with average America. Nowadays its a poor shadow of what it used to be though.

Much of it is the rust belt. Former industrial areas that were destroyed when businesses shut down and moved to the third world. Its like the third world now. Think of the dead industrial towns in the UK

North of Tennessee and Oklahoma from Ohio in the east to Nebraska in the west I would say

Google AI answer:
The Midwestern United States is a central region of the country, often called the "Heartland," comprising 12 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

I think the term "midwest" comes from the fact that the continent was colonized from the east. To the west of the new settlements lay wilderness. As the settlements expanded, what used to be the wild west was now not so wild, but still west of what was considered "civilization". Now the far west (Rocky Mountains and beyond) became the true west. And so the middle areas were thought of as "midwest" rather than "middle". And the whites came in from the south as well. And I think that is why there is a distinct area referred to as the "South", but the northern states are more usually lumped with the Midwest. There is a "North" but it is not as distinct as the "South". And that probably has to do with the Civil War as well. There is also the concept of the "mid-South", for example Memphis.

I refuse to call Ohio Midwest.