Missouri Books

I enjoyed this one cover to cover. Being an Ozark Native (lived here all my life) and being from a family (as is my wife) that settled in this area well before the Civil War, I was able to relate quite well to the wonderful stories and accounts presented here by the author. This work truly captures the essence of our past and should certainly be read by any who has the slightest interest in the subject. Like another reviewer, I am afraid this work will be relegated to a narrow audience, which is a shame as there are true gems in these pages. This work examines a somewhat lost way of life and sadly, as each year passes, we loose more and more of it. This work covers the period between 1885 and 1910, but it must be said that many of the traditions referenced here lived long after this time period. Recommend this one highly.

This book might appeal to a narrow audience, but I hope not. Prof. Gilmore has done a great job detailing the history of just how people of the turn of the century Ozarks entertained themselves. Taken mostly from old newspapers and oral histories you get great insight into the box and pie suppers, community picnics, spellings bees, debates, school plays, singing schools, and other gatherings that people used to spice up their isolated rural lives in the rugged Ozarks. I was amazed at some of the worldly topics that were debated in the schools in the evenings and the pure excitment of packing up the wagon with fried chicken and pies to spend the day at the community picnic.

This book provides a warm look back at a much simpler time. It is wonderful reading!!

Well-written and intelligent, with a good sense of humor to boot. Marr throws scores of ideas at the reader, and shows that, as a travel destination, The Ozarks can hold their own against some of the USA's best.

I've also purchased Missouri and Arkansas Off the Beaten Path guides, but they simply aren't quite as complete and don't convey the same sense of fun or authority as Marr's guide.

The best-darned guidebook to the fabled area, The Ozarks, provides dozens of reasons to take a pass on Miami, Las Vegas, and Hollywood, and visit some of the most authentic places in the nation. Ron Marr has written a wonderfully entertaining guide that's filled with tons of advice on what to see, what to do, where to stay, where to eat, the best places to shop and the special events of the area. Branson, Missouri, has made the Ozarks the destination of choice for countless people, but Marr tells you all about the other great places that can be found across Missouri and Arkansas, and as he does you will find yourself laughing out loud and planning your next trip there.

As a student of history it was exciting to come across Mark Levitch's recent book, Pantheon de La Guerre: Reconfiguring a Panorama of the Great War. Readers interested in art, political science, marketing or just wanting to expand their horizons will find this to be a brilliantly written work. With its many elegant illustrations you may find yourself doing as I did. Upon reading of an illustration I literally took a magnifying glass to better view it and was amazed how Mr. Levitch was able to minutely go over the painting to discover its varied stories. Mr. Levitch succeeds in presenting as grand a vista into the First World War from the perspective of the French nation by its artists as the artists themselves did with their colossal work. Intriguing indeed is the writing manner by which Mr. Levitch takes a one dimensional propaganda piece and literally makes it appear as a living, breathing and altering life form. His style draws one easily into understanding how the French and their allies came to revere this distorted air brushed view of the war as the Pantheon unfortunately presented. Mr. Levitch points out the numerous changes made to the Pantheon during the war, changes made to reflect the most current politically correct points of view as the war progressed. An example of this is Tsar Nicholas and his court which suffered the air bushing of history upon imperial Russia's abandonment of their French allies. Even the rampant bile of French anti Semitism found its way into the painting which, because of Mr. Levitch's research, is noted and the portion of the Pantheon containing its depiction is illustrated. I must wonder if the time spent by the author researching each figure, trying to identify every face and noting each modification to this enormous colossus is any less an endeavor than the actual painting itself. The book later follows the Pantheon's history through out the roaring twenties and its eventual arrival to its new home, the United States. Because of the vivid detailed documentation, various sections of the pantheon stand out and become a vision in the mind's eye. It was amusing to read of the inclusion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S Truman into the Pantheon as the French viewpoint of the war became second fiddle at the hands of American artists revising the pantheon to reflect their tastes and to make its exhibition more palatable to Americans. To the owners belong the spoils and with the great art piece firmly in the ownership of Americans it was repainted, torn apart, and pieced back together to represent a significantly greater American involvement in the Great War than the French ever intended and perhaps more so than history can sustain. Today, as its 100 birthday nears, portions of the Pantheon de La Guerre are on display in Kansas City's Liberty War Memorial. Without Mr. Levitch's eye opening book, a museum visitor may easily assume these portions are the Pantheon as it was originally presented and in its entirety. It is no such thing. In reality, it is as much a distortion in its present state as the original was of the Great War. If for no other reason this would mark Pantheon de La Guerre: Reconfiguring a Panorama of the Great War an outstanding researched and must read book. When you parallel this with the author's writing style, the descriptive interesting tidbits and major informative facts presented I am in awe this is only the author's first book.

Art historian Mark Levitch has unearthed the fascinating back story to a revered painting that hangs in the nation's only World War I museum, The Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. Turns out that this depiction of America's rescue of Europe originated as a relatively minor panel in a vast mural the length of a football field. Created during the Great War by select French academic artists, Pantheon De La Guerre was intended as a celebration of France and its allies, replete with the iconography of the period (not to mention the topography of France!). In Levitch's telling, the mural fell out of fashion in post-war France; only an idioscyncratic Baltimore collector saved it from the dust heap. The colossus was shipped to America, where in the 1930s it was thoroughly sheared and reconfigured as a paean to American heroism in the war. Components of the mural are dispersed worldwide and still show up at auctions and on eBay. In crystal clear and elegant prose Levitch portrays the strange devolution of the painting as an index to shifting tastes in modern art and culture between the wars. If you have any interest in the Great War and the art and culture of the period, you will find Levitch's account compelling reading. This handsomely printed and illustrated volume is fit for the coffee table or the study. Highly recommended.

This is one of the best book I've ever read on this subject. I would highly recommend it!

This was an amazingly interesting book. The best I've read on the subject. I would definitely recommend it.

Unquestionably the best commentary on Plato I have read as yet. No ideology, no radical interpretations of Plato, just extraordinarily insightful and incisive. The essential secondary reference in studies of Platonic political philosophy.

Oxford Don, Raghavan Iyer noted that the world is a fortunate place when there are two people alive -- at the same time -- who understand Plato. Eric Voegelin was clearly one of those people in the twentieth century. This material was originally published in Volume 3 of Order and History, the core of the magnus opus that Voegelin chose to publish during his life time.

I met Eric Voegelin once as a graduate student, and asked him, "why'd you publish all this stuff?" I've been digesting his answer ever since. It was "to resist totality and totalitarianism."

Particularly, seen from this standpoint, a clear core of this book is his articulation of the Platonic concept of "metaxy," or the in-between character of life. In philosophical terms, this refers most directly and fully to "in-between" the Agathon (e.g., see myth of the cave and the Divided Line in the Republic) and the apeiron (explored most directly and deeply in the Timaeus). For the philosophically uninitiated, it is possible to speak of this in more mundane terms.

An unstated corollary of Plato's notion of the "metaxy" is that life is always larger than our categories. From a Socratic/Platonic perspective, this may include but will entail more than the epistemological recognition that every way of seeing is a way of not seeing. The notion of the "metaxy" is most fundamentally a linguistic indice pointing to ontological plenty as the ground of life, albeit lived within bounds of existential scarcity. This is a notion commonly shared by the great civilizations of East and West. The notion of the "metaxy" underscores that life is lived within a tension between the "transcendent" and "immanent" dimensions of being.

When we lose track of this tension, as we have to a great extent in the modern world, and subscribe to reductive ideological notions/understandings of life -- and most particularly, when we imagine that we can encapsulate life within the pride of our own "enlightened" categories -- on a political plane, there may be little to constrain the prideful actions of ideologies, irrespective of whether their clothing is Red or Black, or whether it is "left" or "right." Irrespective of the political stripe, repression and murder become "justified" in the pursuit of an ideological aim -- which in Voegelin's philosophical terms is to dissolve the "metaxy" in the usual modernist mode, through immanetizing the transcendent "eschaton."

Voegelin's philosophical terms may sound remarkably abstract to the modern ear (recall Robert Dahl's silly review of Voegelin's The New Science of Politics for the American Political Science journal). Facile critiques such as Dahl's typically focus on the unfamiliar language while overlooking the elementary fact that what Voegelin is asking us to do in every aspect of his work is to take a journey that precisely allows us to see the world in terms other than that of our inherited climate of opinion. For those willing to be thorough scholars rather than merely play at it within the context of given suppositions, Voegelin's scholarship offers new vistas and incredibly rich fields of study. His scholarship offers the capacity to reflect upon and act in the world in a substantively grounded mode with implications for every discipline (see e.g., A.G. Ramos' New Science of Organizations).

I submit that a key to understanding this text and the greater body of his work at large is to grasp the central significance of the "metaxy" -- not as a concept within the history of ideas -- but as a life referent of perennial relevance to the recurring challenge of resisting sophistic pretensions and the inherited or emergent ideologies of any time and place.

This text demands a good deal. You'll develop insights into Plato available no where else. But for Voegelin, such studies were never a matter of antiquarian interest. They were a matter of developing meaningful referents for life. The value in this text is precisely in its yield, capable of resonating throughout your life and offering far more than the initial effort it will require of you.

I am a teacher of young adults and a YA writer, myself. I ordered the book because I'm also writing a story about a burn victim. When I picked it up, I thought it might provide me some research material that may be useful, but what I got was much more. I literally read it in one evening, because I was dying to know how things turned out with Leon and Melody. Katcher's voice is astounding, and I was instantly rooting for Leon. The empathy and seriousness of the topic regarding burn victims is touching, but the author wrote the book in such an entertaining manner, that I didn't feel preached to.

Katcher understands popular teen culture and language. His use of slang is right on the mark, and he describes the high school experience quite effectively and believably. I am very impressed by Katcher's first novel. I believe he will be a YA writer to watch. Although his protagonist is male, I feel that girls will love this book. In fact, it may be more geared to a female audience because of the romantic elements. This is quite a feat for most male authors--to close in on an opposite gender audience. I feel that males will like the book as well. They will undoubtedly relate to Leon and his dating dilemmas. The sexual tension in the story is also right on the mark for YA. Katcher's voice reveals this tension...the male yearnings for sexual experience and its preoccupation.

The characters are diverse and enjoyable, and the book is a delightful and insightful read. I will definitely encourage my students to read this book, and I'll look forward to more from Brian Katcher. Bravo!

With his debut novel, Brian Katcher has successfully crafted the bittersweet tale of a teenage boy's quest to find love in the tragicomic world of a typical suburban high school.

The novel's protagonist, Leon, is one of a new breed of literary subject: the iconoclastic and self-professed nerd, comfortable in his own skin, but yearning, ultimately, for something more than his circle of male friends can provide. While his long-held crush on the popular cheerleader Amy Green blossoms into something more real (and inconvenient) than he could've ever dared imagine, it is the budding relationship between Leon and Melody Hennon that forms the beating heart of the book. Melody's character is a marvel. Mr. Katcher manages to write a profoundly scarred young woman with such depth that you often forget, as does Leon, that she is scarred at all. While the reality of Melody's disfigurement is always acknowledged, it never overwhelms what is a truly astonishing character. The reader never questions why Leon would be drawn to Melody's wit and warmth, nor do we question her interest in him.

In the end, the plot resists easy answers to the many questions it poses about self-esteem, trust, love, and the great yearning all young people feel for acceptance by their peers. The author mixes laughter and tears in equal measure to produce a nuanced and deeply heartfelt look at young love in all its complex glory. Bravo to Mr. Katcher for a fine debut to his literary career.

As one of the most important and engaging political thinkers of the last century, Russell Kirk is deserving of much greater and sustained scholarly attention than he has received. Russello's (affiliated scholar, Seton Hall) work is part of a recent trend to correct this longstanding deficiency. The book attempts to critique Kirk's life and writings by examining five aspects of his thought: overall mission; interpretation of history; political life; jurisprudence; and his criticism of modern life (Kirk's "counternarrative"). In terms of mission, Kirk's active engagement with society and politics is detailed; in other words, those who have neglected his work, viewing Kirk as either an advocate of "nostalgia" or a "static version of some ideal past" are introduced to the more engaging potentialities of his achievement. The vital role of tradition and history for Kirk are explored with great clarity and sensitivity, along with Kirk's views of politics and statesmanship, properly understood. The treatment of the interconnection between natural law and American constitutionalism in Kirk's writings also deserves commendation. In this important book, Russello provides a sagacious refutation of the often unreflective criticisms of Kirk, while affirming the vitality of Kirk's thought for contemporary politics.

H. Lee Cheek, Jr., Ph.D.
www.drleecheek.com

As one of the most important and engaging political thinkers of the last century, Russell Kirk is deserving of much greater and sustained scholarly attention than he has received. Russello's (affiliated scholar, Seton Hall) work is part of a recent trend to correct this longstanding deficiency. The book attempts to critique Kirk's life and writings by examining five aspects of his thought: overall mission; interpretation of history; political life; jurisprudence; and his criticism of modern life (Kirk's "counternarrative"). In terms of mission, Kirk's active engagement with society and politics is detailed; in other words, those who have neglected his work, viewing Kirk as either an advocate of "nostalgia" or a "static version of some ideal past" are introduced to the more engaging potentialities of his achievement. The vital role of tradition and history for Kirk are explored with great clarity and sensitivity, along with Kirk's views of politics and statesmanship, properly understood. The treatment of the interconnection between natural law and American constitutionalism in Kirk's writings also deserves commendation. In this important book, Russello provides a sagacious refutation of the often unreflective criticisms of Kirk, while affirming the vitality of Kirk's thought for contemporary politics.

It is a well illustrated and informative book of Precious Moments. You won't go wrong on buying this one. Specially if you are starting to get into Precious Moments figurines.

I think it is very colourful! And it is beautiful too!

I do a lot of research on Missouri archaeology and this is always the book that I start with to get background information on a site. It is the BIBLE as far as my work is concerned. The bibliography alone is an awesome resource and has been immensely helpful in pointing me to other sources of info. Dr. Wood and Dr. O'Brien are both great, well-respected archaeologists; anything with either of their names on it is gold in my opinion. Both have a writing style that is easy to digest, which is something I always appreciate. I have an office copy and am now ordering one for my personal collection. I have yet to read it cover to cover (will as soon as I get it), but, by simply using the index, it has proven to be an invaluable tool for what I do.

This is one of the few books I have read, then reread portions of several times. O'Brien and Wood have done more than justice to their subject; they have created a new direction through their serious consideration of archaeological systemics. I especially appreciate the strong thread of honesty and humility that runs through the entire text. This is particularly evident in the introductory chapter, "Time, Space, and Form in Americanist Archaeology" and the final chapter, "A Further Consideration..." I have long suspected that we know a whole lot less about prehistory in general than the public imagines or scholars would like to believe, and I am frustrated by the plethora of virtually meaningless labels and conjectures in other works. In between the first and last chapters,is the mass of knowledge these gentlemen share. Their story of the peopling of America is fresh and open with consideration for truly iconclastic possibilities. They view the Dalton tradition probably the immediate successor of the Clovis tradition in mid-America, and the discussion is well thought out, but leaves open minds for so much more to be discovered and understood in the future. They bring the reader through the ages in the pivotal state of Missouri by clearly and objectively looking at the evidence. This book is well worth your examination whether you reside in Missouri or elsewhere.

Having had a long time interest in family history, I especially appreciated this book. Wonderful explanation of late 1800s way of life in southwest Missouri. I found this book because my husband is a grt-grt-grt grandson of the author, Martin Rice. I had heard about this book, but had no idea that it was still available. Thank you Amazon.com.

Martin rice was a prominent citizen of Lone Jack, Missouri and gives his personal account of the war on the border of Missouri. Great family research tool for Missouri pioneers. Infamous order # 11 issued during the Civil War on the Western Border.