Missouri Books

Professor Lukacs might best be called a historic conservative rather than an ideological one. This collection of essays and articles reflects the mindset of a gentleman who wishes to conserve what is best from history. He has a few novel theories. Nationalism, not ideologies like Nazism, Communism and Fascism, has been the root cause for most of this century's struggles. One can disagree with Prof. Lukacs but one must respect his view. He hints in some fifteen year old essays that Europe would de-Americanize; as the age of the Euro nears, Prof. Lukacs was prescient. His theory on mountains and romanticism is fascinating. Before the English initiated Romanticism in the early 1800s, mountains were considered horrible. Today, Prof. Lukacs says we love mountains and their beauty; we are all romantics now. My favorite vignette was Prof. Lukacs's touring of Hitler's birthplace of Braunau on the 100th anniversary of Hitler's birth. The good professor made a side-trip from Braunau to a small Austrian village where a heroic peasant by the name, I believe, of Jagrstatter stood up to the Nazis and refused to be drafted. He was guillotined in 1943. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.

Biographies of 700+ individuals who have contributed significantly to the development of the state of Missouri with many achieving national fame as well. The book draws from all fields of activities--politics, business, science, religion, art, etc. without regard to race, gender, etc. Although the book seems a little pricy at first glance, I wasn't disappointed--the thoroughness and quality makes it well worth the price.

I am extremely impressed with Taylor's book, which explores the real and imagined consequences of the Civil War on families in border states, where the question of secession was the most complicated and the most fraught. This book not only documents (in writing that rises to the level of great literary writing -- a rarity in young historians) the actual occurrence of split families and what they had to say for themselves, but also the psychological, moral, and political implications of families at odds with each other. That is, this book gets beyond the idea of "the brother's war" as merely a curiosity or a sentimental metaphor, and shows how the state of the society -- the relations between men and women, white and black -- itself is revealed in the experience of these families, observed in extremis.

The writing, again, is extraordinary. Fans of Doris Kearn Goodwin or David McCullough will love this book, and will be pleased to know that Taylor is of the new generation of historians and likely to be around and writing for a very long time.

This is a big book, running to 484 pages, including the index. This volume, together with Volume 32, is where the editors put materials that don't fit anywhere else. Some of the things included here:

1. CONVERSATIONS WITH ERIC VOEGELIN, from 1967, 1970, and 1975
at the Thomas More Institute in Montreal. It has been
circulating all these years in photocopy or photo offset
versions. It contains some of Voegelin's choicest comments, such
as his remarks on teaching evolution in the schools:

"You get some funny situations. In California now there is a
fight between literalists or providentialists, and biological
theorists. And you get in the textbooks both Genesis and
Darwinian evolutionism as two "theories" of evolution. You see
what that really means? The fundamentalist theologians in
California (fundamentalism was well established there at the
beginning of the century) don't know what a myth is. They
believe it is a theory. They're in ignorance.

"And the biological theorists don't know that Kant has analysed
why one cannot have an immanentist theory of evolution. One can
have empirical observation but no general theory of evolution
because the sequence of forms is a mystery; it just is there and
you cannot explain it by any theory. The world cannot be
explained. It is a mythical problem, so you have a strong
element of myth in the theory of evolution.

"So both the theoretical evolutionists and the fundamentalist
theologians are illiterate. That level of illiteracy is taught
in the text books as "two theories"-neither one of which is a
theory. "
Myth as Environment p 307, 335

The publication of these three conversations was something of an
afterthought. There were four conversations originally and
the first was published in Volume 11 of the CW as "In
Search of the Ground." One can hope that all four conversations
will be reunited in a paperback version in the not-too-distant
future-perhaps with some other informal exchanges.

2. Then there is the question and answer period from the Boston
College conference from 1983 entitled THE BEGINNING AND THE
BEYOND, chaired by Frederick Lawrence. It is here that Voegelin
makes his comment on the Eucharist:

"Parousia means presence, and you remember this presence by
speaking it out: Where the name of Christ is pronounced, there he
is present. But you have to be reminded you are in Christ, and
pronounce it right. It is quite possible that the formulation of
the Eucharist as 'in my remembrance' (which is anamnesis) of
which Paul speaks always evokes the double-meaning of the
remembering of recollection and of remembering in the sense of
establishing what the reality is to be."

Responses at the Panel Discussion of
"The Beginning of the Beginning", p 415, 427.

3. There there are the exchanges between Voegelin and "father of
the atom bomb" J. Robert Oppenheimer at the 1959 Swiss conference
directed by Raymond Aron, "Colloques de Rheinfelden." Also
present: Michael Polanyi and Bertrand de Jounvenel. The chapter
is entitled "The West and the Meaning of Industrial Society:
Excerpts from the Discussion." What is not clear from these
excerpts is that it is pretty much Voegelin "contra mundum" 'though
Aron leans heavily his way. The paper Voegelin delivered at the
conference is found in Vol 11 CW under the title "Industrial
Society in Search of Reason."

4. The transcript of Voegelin's lecture, "Structures of
Consciousness," from the 1978 York University conference is
included. The lecture was videotaped and some have seen it in
this form.

5. In "Natural Law in Political Theory" (1963) we have exchanges
between Voegelin and his Doctor-Father Hans Kelsen. To
put it plainly, they disagree more than once.

6. In "Man in Political Institutions" we have Voegelin and a
distinguished group of colleagues exchanging views, including Alois Dempf and Jürgen Gebhardt.

7. For the literary-minded there are Voegelin's notes on T.S.
Eliot's "Four Quartets."

8. The book concludes with the much-admired "Autobiographical
Statement at Age Eighty-two."

And there is more, but you will have to read the book. It is
one of the most inviting of the the Voegelin volumes. A genuine
delight.

I have put up on the web the table of contents:
http://www.fritzwagner.com/ev/cw/cw_33_contents.html

And the index, beautifully done as always by Linda Webster:
http://www.fritzwagner.com/ev/eric_voegelin_volume_index_list.html#33

Spare and elegant prose, like the dry side of the Cascades, makes this book utterly memorable. Ben Varon is one of those characters, albeit he was a real guy, who stays with you long after the last page has been turned.

I was fortunate enough to read this in early drafts, and reading it now, again, is like rediscovering an old friend. Familiar, yet wonderful, like perfectly broken in riding boots.

Written by National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium consultant Katherine Fisher, Dreaming the Mississippi is part memoir, part cultural reflection, part celebration of the mighty Mississippi. From the author's daily life in a house so close to the Mississippi banks that each spring she must open her basement doors to accept the regular floods, to tongue-in-cheek accounts of river rats and towboat pilots, to tales of desperate sandbagging against unruly flood tides, river hangouts, choice waterfront taverns, and more. A chapter especially devoted to the river's mouth considers not only the natural gulf itself, but the gulf as a metaphor for the gulf between engineers and naturalists, America's haves and its have-nots. A handful of black-and-white photographs, and somber reflections upon the outcome to Hurricane Katrina's wrath round out this reverent reflection upon not only the celebrated Mississippi, but also humankind's inextricable bond to the natural world.

Gwenyth Swain presses upon readers the inexorable pain of a people slogging through history, moved "for a returnless distance" away from their homes. They were striving toward the goal of Freedom while being slaves to the selfishness of others because of skin color. Dred and Harriet Scott are portrayed as real human beings, not objects to be moved as on a game board in a calculating manner, or according to whim.

The author describes their agony when 'slave poor' owners who had more slaves than could be used, either rented them out or sold them for needed cash. The Scotts were forced to send their daughters away for safety during the years, 1857 to 1867, when they lived through five trials.

Swain shares a unique insight into the famous "Dred Scott Decision" that burgeoned from this dream for freedom. Support given Dred and Harriet by white lawyers was amazing yet in the end it was a twist of fate, embodied in a conceited, selfish woman that brought them their freedom.

This book, "DRED AND HARRIET SCOTT: A FAMILY'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM" sheds light on the fragile nature of freedom, and the cruel irony that freedoms can be eroded by government edict. REVIEWER MCHAIKU asks 'what better time in history (2004) to read about the TRUE MEANING & VALUE OF FREEDOM?'

As students of U.S. history know, the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case was one of the major causes leading up to the Civil War. Prof. Finkelman has provided a valuable educational tool that will help students understanding this important part of our history. His clear and concise explanation of the case, including an analysis of the majority opinion, concurring opinions, and dissenting opinions, and other relevant aspects, is well-researched and well-written. He also includes excerpts from the Supreme Court's opinion so that readers can examine it and draw their own conclusions. Any serious student of U.S. history, particularly of the Civil War period and the events leading up to it, should own a copy of this book.

Clare Eby has written something new and provocative about Dreiser. This book is elegantly written, and argued with style and wit. Those who are interested in American studies, in Dreiser, and in Veblen while find some revelatory analysis. Professor Eby's book will stay relevant for many years to come.

Gwynn's first collection is out of print, so you'll have to search around to find a copy of it, but it is worth it. If you are familiar with Gwynn's work then you already know he is a master satirist and has mastered form, meter, and humor. (If you're not familiar with his work, then make sure you get his new and selected poems, _No Word of Farewell_). There are only a dozen or so poems that he didn't select for the new and selected poems. But you should read them, and not only them, but the selected poems in their original order. It makes interesting reading.