Missouri Books

"Porcupine, Picayune & Post: How Newspapers Get Their Names" is a fascinating and analytical history of how many of America's newspapers came to carry distinctive, even whimsical, names like 'Jimplecute', 'Acantha', 'Zephry', 'Gondolier', 'Iconoclast' or 'Bazzo'. Author and word sleuth Jim Bernhard also reveals why there are so many newspapers around the country that carry the words 'Herald', 'Journal', 'Post', and 'Tribune' in their titles. Sometimes the names had their roots in politics, sometimes they were personal, sometimes they were meant to represent a philosophy or mission. "Porcupine, Picayune & Post" is wonderfully informative read that is as entertaining as it is instructional. "Porcupine, Picayune & Post" is a well deserved and popular addition to both academic and community library Journalism and American History reference collections and supplemental reading lists. A work of seminal scholarship, "Porcupine, Picayune & Post" is also very highly recommended to non-specialist general readers curious about the origin stories behind their own favorite newspapers.

The Portable Famine is an eclectic collection of the great poet Rane Arroyo's most astute and memorable work. Among other great poets of modern day, Arroyo depicts an incredible perspective of the human condition, American mentality, and his intimate encounters with life itself. Mayberry, RFD: Not even one illegal Mexican/in the body shop? No Guatemalan/maid at One Hour Motel? Not//a Puertorriquena owning/a Tex-Mex restaurant? How/white is white? Poor Opie,//taught to fear jalapeños./Even in imaginary America,/America has to be imagined.

"Portrait of America" was a popular video documentary series in the mid-eighties, a product of collaboration between Superstation/Turner Broadcasting Corporation and Ambrose Home Video. Well-researched, each video is divided into 5 segments covering most unique historical, social, and cultural aspects of each state. Watching such an interesting documentary, each being roughly about 50 minutes long, without advertisements and other interruptions seems to be a privilege in these days!

A Portrait Of Missouri: 1935-1943 by Paul E. Parker (Professor of Political Science, Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri) is an impressive and evocative collection of black-and-white photographs drawn from the historical archives of the Farm Security Administration. Documenting the impoverished farm economy during the Great Depression as well as part of the World War II era, these striking images preserve a memorable portrait of small town and rural history itself. The extensive, informative, scholarly text places the photographs within their historical context and complements this superb and highly recommended photographic gallery.

David Fitzgerald is one of Oklahoma's top photographers and this book just makes you want to travel to all the wonderful spots he's captured on film!

Pot Roast, Politics, and Ants in the Pantry: Missouri's Cookbook Heritage is not a cookbook per se - rather, it is a surprisingly involved treasury of anecdotes concerning the history of cookbooks and food preparation in Missouri, the Show Me State. From traditional "kitchen medicine", to household tips that have been passed down through the generations, to extensive cookbook collections preserved in libraries, historical societies, and the shelves of private individuals, to how the Internet has transformed modern-day recipe sharing, Pot Roast, Politics, and Ants in the Pantry is a thoroughly entertaining tour de force of how love of good Missouri cooking has been passed along through the generations.

If you don't know the Battle of the Atlantic from the Battle of Leyte Gulf, you'll want to do a quick review of U.S. naval history during World War II before starting Dr. Rose's second volume in his Power at Sea trilogy. That said, I think that even the casual historian will find this book well worth their while. A revealing look into the rise of the aircraft carrier as the dominate weapon of sea power is only one of the several intriguing topics covered. I was particularly fascinated by the section that described how close the axis nations actually came to winning the war they had so recklessly begun. This book provides an excellent look into the era in which the United States surpassed Great Britain as the greatest sea power in the world.

Prairie Power: Voices Of 1960s Midwestern Student Protest is an anthology of oral histories from former student radicals of the University of Missouri, the University of Kansas, and Southern Illinois University. Directly challenging the stereotype of prairie power activists as "long-haired, dope-smoking anarchists" who brought about the downfall of Students for a Democratic Society, Prairie Power explores lasting student activist contributions to the New Left, and delves into the histories of national SDS leaders, the local midwestern activists who often felt they were on their own, and the stories of the grassroots activists. Building upon the testimonies of individuals to present a cohesive whole, Prairie Power is a welcome contribution to understanding the dynamics of 60's student protests and influence and its effect upon the nation for generations to come.

Award-winning author and poet John Knoepfle presents Prayer Against Famine & Other Irish Poems, a work that embraces his Irish roots and contemplates the human drive for survival in spite of terrible suffering. Compassion and tragedy intertwine in these brief, free-verse compositions that evoke a sanctity of the human spirit. Dancing with the Inupiaq: the man dancing on one foot / told us he did not know / where his songs came from / only that his grandmother sang them // we understood how it was with him / how the man at the desk and that one / skulking in the beloved fields / would tell him it did not matter // so we put on our gloves / and we all got up and danced / keeping time as well as we knew / and awkward as a room full of bears // learning how the inupiaq dance.

If you like romance mixed with some very good history this is the book for you. The love stories in this book are great. I fell in love with the families and felt their pain as they suffered through so many trials during the Civil War. A very good book.