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Missouri: A Bicentennial History
In the era of overland traders and steamboat pilots, of Thomas Hart Benton and Mark Twain, life in Missouri was strongly flavored by the Jeffersonian spirit, expressed in a suspicion of large cities, a belief that mankind flourished best in a rural setting, and a faith in the free individual as the guardian of liberty.
- GenresHistory
236 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 13, 2022
Written as part of a US-bicentennial series, I decided to read Missouri: A History in my state’s bicentennial year (1821-1822).
Despite suggestion in the introduction that I shouldn’t exactly expect a chronological history, I found Nagel’s Missouri to be essentially just that. It was a very fulfilling look at the complicated, discriminatory, stubborn, and sometimes brutal story of the Show-Me State.
I noticed little that was missing, except an acknowledgment of Missouri’s other universities outside of St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City, and more on Ulysses Grant, who failed in his agricultural endeavors near St. Louis, and might have been included in the notable men who permanently migrated east out of Missouri. Also absent was WWI general John J. Pershing, aviator Charles Lindbergh, and other famous folks who once called Missouri home, but Nagel indicates in his ‘furher reading’ list that his is not meant to ride the wave of history books focused on place- and name-dropping.
It was difficult to re-read about the atrocities along Missouri’s western border leading up to the Civil War, and of the pleasure many Missourian’s took in the burnings of Lawrence and Chicago. Yet those incidents lay hidden deep in the stories of Missouri’s sports rivalries today.
Missouri’s mule-stubborn philosophies and political feelings were also hard to appreciate, yet Missouri: A History helps explain my state’s attitudes today, still not wanting to lead the nation in any social or political trends, waiting to be shown the way.
Nagel unapologetically presents the rise and inglorious fall of both St. Louis and Kansas City, each of which once had dreams of being beacons of the future for the nation, but now find themselves little more than pushpins in the simple map of “flyover country”.
A little dated now but still perfectly truthful and appropriate, Missouri: A History is an excellent and valuable read for any of my fellow Missourians, and anyone wanting to dig deeper into the individual histories of the United States.
Despite suggestion in the introduction that I shouldn’t exactly expect a chronological history, I found Nagel’s Missouri to be essentially just that. It was a very fulfilling look at the complicated, discriminatory, stubborn, and sometimes brutal story of the Show-Me State.
I noticed little that was missing, except an acknowledgment of Missouri’s other universities outside of St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City, and more on Ulysses Grant, who failed in his agricultural endeavors near St. Louis, and might have been included in the notable men who permanently migrated east out of Missouri. Also absent was WWI general John J. Pershing, aviator Charles Lindbergh, and other famous folks who once called Missouri home, but Nagel indicates in his ‘furher reading’ list that his is not meant to ride the wave of history books focused on place- and name-dropping.
It was difficult to re-read about the atrocities along Missouri’s western border leading up to the Civil War, and of the pleasure many Missourian’s took in the burnings of Lawrence and Chicago. Yet those incidents lay hidden deep in the stories of Missouri’s sports rivalries today.
Missouri’s mule-stubborn philosophies and political feelings were also hard to appreciate, yet Missouri: A History helps explain my state’s attitudes today, still not wanting to lead the nation in any social or political trends, waiting to be shown the way.
Nagel unapologetically presents the rise and inglorious fall of both St. Louis and Kansas City, each of which once had dreams of being beacons of the future for the nation, but now find themselves little more than pushpins in the simple map of “flyover country”.
A little dated now but still perfectly truthful and appropriate, Missouri: A History is an excellent and valuable read for any of my fellow Missourians, and anyone wanting to dig deeper into the individual histories of the United States.
December 29, 2024
A well-written but occasionally dry and often superficial overview of Missouri's history from the late 18th century to the bicentennial in 1976. The sections on Harry Truman and Reinhold Niebuhr were the strongest.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews