University of Missouri Books

In The American Way of Peace, Jan S. Prybyla traces the implementation of an idea derived from bedrock American values that has shaped the American character from the nation's beginning. The idea-simple, generous, optimistic, and effective-was and remains to give people realizable hope, an attainable dream, by creating a peaceful, secure, and materially comfortable world, a Pax Americana, the American Way of Peace.

In the period surveyed, beginning with the end of World War II, this objective was achieved through American initiative and with American leadership, despite resistance from Nazi barbarism, Soviet serfdom, and, more recently, Islamic extremist inhumanity. There has also been opposition from some of those in the western confines of Europe whom Pax Americana helped raise from the ashes to which they had been reduced.

The American Way of Peace examines the work of reconstruction, the enemy bombardment, as well as the hurtful sniping along the way by the beneficiaries of American support. Prybyla recommends a reevaluation of American relations with those to whom friendship is but a utilitarian device, in light of the present eruption of terrorism worldwide. The need for America to act wisely and resolutely in defense of civilized values, to stem the third tidal wave of terrorist savagery, and to venture where others fear to tread is more compelling now than it has been in the six decades past, for today America's very survival as a force for immense good in the world is being put to the test.

About the Author
Jan S. Prybyla is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pennsylvania State University, President of the Conference on European Problems, and Adjunct Faculty member of the Foreign Service Institute at the U. S. Department of State. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Market and Plan under Socialism: The Bird in the Cage and Reform in China and Other Socialist Economies.

First of all, a disclaimer. My grandfather, Horace Baker, wrote this book, so its interest to me is probably more than to most. This book was originally printed in 1927 and saw very limited distribution. Contrary to what Amazon says, Dr. Ferrell is not the author. However, what Dr. Ferrell did do for this reprint was to add some pertinent endnotes to link my grandfather's close (and sometimes incorrect) view of what was happening to the bigger picture of the Meuse-Argonne battle. Also, some helpful maps and a few photos have been added as well. About the text itself: Horace Baker's text begins on arrival at the front and ends with the armistice. It is well written with a simple, usually matter-of-fact style. There are a few purple passages but they do not distract too much from the facts and there are even a few bits of humor. It is very readable and flows easily.

The recurring themes are the same that sadly occur thoughout most wartime experiences: exhaustion, hunger, exposure to the elements, fear, and violent death.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has serious interest in The Great War. I also recommend Dr. Ferrell's book "America's Deadliest Battle: Meuse-Argonne, 1918" as a companion to this in order to understand what was happening on a larger scale.

The 4th Revised Edition (ISBN # 0826203949): "This new edition contains 76 drawings that add much to his narrative, plus a foreword discussing Benton's place in American art and an afterword covering his career after 1968...." by Baigell. Chronology. Bibliography.

Simply the most compelling treatment of Augustine as political thinker on the market.

Awakening To Equality: A Young White Pastor At The Dawn Of Civil Rights by Karl E. Lutze is the engaging story of a young Lutheran priest's approach to the newly emerging era of American civil rights activism in 1945 as a newcomer to the world of clerical practice. As the young Karl Lutze found himself placed in Oklahoma's Muskogee, amidst a greatly African American community, Awakening To Equality carries the reader through the inherently fascinating saga of his dual practice in Tulsa and Muskogee, and his journey through sights and experiences of black and white power rallies, activism from both races, and an economically impoverished but spiritual enriched black culture. Providing an unforgettable story and a timeless perspective of significant time in American 20th Century cultural and political history, Awakening To Equality is very strongly recommended to students of American history, particularly the Civil Rights movement, for its invaluable eye-witness perspective.

Mr. Meyer's account of his life as a jazz musician in the early 1920's is an entertaining glimpse of what it was like in the glory days of jazz musicians. The writing style is somewhat rambling, but that understandable since the book is really Peg's recollections, strung together.
In an era when musicians are routinely replaced by recorded performances and synthesizers, it is easy to envy Mr. Meyer's life, playing music on the Mississippi riverboats.
This book is interesting, entertaining, and insightful.

Gerald R. Butters, Jr. (Associate Professor of History at Aurora University) presents Banned in Kansas: Motion Picture Censorship 1915-1966. In 1915, Kansas was one of a handful of states that established its own film censorship board. From limiting depictions of sexuality to censoring violence in the 1932 classic "Scarface", the Kansas board controlled what the state's population saw on the silver screen for over fifty years. Banned in Kansas explores the political, social, and economic factors that led to the policy of movie censorship in Kansas, the attitudes of ordinary Kansas citizens toward the censorship, and why censorship continued for so many decades. Banned in Kansas also scrutinizes the daily operations of the film censorship board, and the complexities it encountered with regard to shifting definitions of cultural morality, as well as vagaries of political and legal systems. Black-and-white stills from censored movies illustrate this informed and informative contribution to American cinema history.

When I was a child one of my favorite books was Understood Betsy by Ms Fisher. I was looking forward to enjoying her as an adult, but I was blown away by her finely crafted stories, their depth and subtlety. Why is this women not well known? She is every bit as skillful as Willa Cather, Laura Ingals Wilder, and Louisa May Alcott.

A most absorbing and well written memoir by a now retired American diplomat who experienced an outstanding thirty five year career in the U.S. Foreign Sevice: Both East and West Germany: Somalia:and Zaire to mention a few. But written with much compassion, humor, humanitarian, and historical insights. To say nothing about his including his experiences with several notable personalities such as Chester Bowles, Robert and Ethel Kennedy::Ronald Reagan: and The Carters etc. etc.

The many facets of the career of Benjamin Franklin have brought one biography after another, with some specializing in one particular aspect of his life. As he had so many active fields of endeavor, the supply of books will continue. Franklin was a scientist, inventor, philosopher, revolutionary, chess player, journalist, essayist, and lifelong do-gooder. He was also a printer, and from that he was a businessman. It is this seemingly ordinary part of his spectacular life that is the subject of _Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America_ (University of Missouri Press) by historian Ralph Frasca. Franklin, of course, thought of himself as a printer. It was what he was trained to do as an apprentice. He became a fugitive apprentice when he ran away from his older brother's Boston shop to make his own way in Philadelphia. He succeeded, and although others eventually took over the ink and typesetting parts of the trade while he made himself busy with other things, he extended his influence to other shops and other newspapers. Using his job skills, he was able to rise beyond his class, a common enough and even typically American story now, but something that was just not done in what was still the British social system of the time. He developed a network of printers which was not only lucrative to him, but helped him get the word out about the importance of virtue, morality, and industry.

That Franklin was a success himself as a printer in Philadelphia there can be no doubt, but he was enormously influential in making a printing empire. In 1731, South Carolina invited him to become its printer of official records, but he did not want to leave Philadelphia. He hit on the alternative of sending his journeyman, Thomas Whitmarsh, to Charleston, along with a press, fonts, and funds. Whitmarsh thus was the first member in what we would recognize as a franchise marketing scheme. He surrendered a third of the profits to Franklin, and in return got the start-up costs, as well as almanacs and other books to be sold in his shop, and news stories so that the _South-Carolina Gazette_ would be a sister publication to Franklin's in Philadelphia. Over the succeeding decades, Franklin would select other journeymen to become his distant proxies, always valuing their industry and sobriety, and in this way hoping that his emphasis on virtue might create further examples for others to follow. Eventually, the Franklin printing empire extended to New York, Newport, New Haven, and even Antigua. Not all of the shops flourished, and some not only lost money but caused their founder family heartache. Nonetheless, Franklin's printing network was the largest and most influential of the time. His first partnership started in 1729, and he forged his last over fifty years later. By his franchises, he increased the growth of printing throughout the colonies; by 1755, eight of the fifteen newspapers in the colonies were from the Franklin network, and other printers learned and borrowed from them. Franklin's success was the press's success, and formed the early American printing tradition. Not only were information and opinion disseminated through the network, but also the value of journalism was impressed upon the reading audience. When the new government was being formed, the importance of a free press was not lost upon it.

Perhaps the most important function of the network was that it allowed Franklin to spend more time on other things, the experiments in electricity, the advising on colonial independence, and the appointments to France by which we better remember him. It was the printing that made him, though; in drafting his will in 1788, he went on to mention his other offices, but identified himself as "BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, of Philadelphia, printer..." right at the beginning. He also wrote the wonderful epitaph for himself (not actually used on his monument) comparing his printer's body to a cover of a book from which the contents have been torn out. Even within the sphere of being a printer, however, he went on to be much more. Frasca's welcome book shows just how Franklin made himself into a printing empire, and stresses (just as Franklin would have wanted) how it was done as part of his effort at improving humanity.