University of Missouri Books

Meuse-Argonne Diary: A Division Commander In World War I is unique, for during the length of America's participation in World War I, only one commander of a division - the author William M. Wright - is known to have kept a diary. It chronicles General Wright's two months at St. Mihiel and particularly the Meuse-Argonne, the largest and deadliest battle in American history. Wright's division of 28,000 draftees from Missouri and Kansas was one of two American point divisions when the U.S. First Army pressed the German defenders back to the Meuse River. A remarkable and pinpoint-critical eyewitness account of a pivotal time in world history, that bravely commisserates with those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country in desperate times.

Since I, too, grew up in Boonville, I'm inclined in favor of this book--I'm sick of reading about people who grew up in New York. I'm also inclined to be highly critical--though I now live two thousand miles away, my hometown is dear to my heart. If Bob Davis has the audacity to write a book about Boonville, he'd better he get right. Well,he did! From the descriptions of food (". . . red Jell-o with marshmallows in it was a dessert. Green Jell-o with cole slaw in it was a salad.")to the interaction of children and adults (he's expected to apologize to an adult who nearly runs over him with a car), he's dead-on accurate. Even his thought patterns are straight out of Boonville ("I don't want to malign anybody either way, but I am pretty sure that all four of the town boys in my class were virgins when they graduated and that at least three-fourths of the country boys were not.") Highly readable and a font of information for people who think the Midwest is dull.

Informatively written by John Shelton Reed (educator, social scientist, and the author and/or editor of thirteen books about the American South), Minding The South is a wonderful celebration of the American South and its culture -- a regional society which has resisted being assimilated by the mainstream United States in order to keep its own distinctive personality. From the search for objectivity among common pitfalls in remembering Southern history especially before and during the civil war; to profiles of talented Southerners who have devoted themselves to everything from rock and roll to designing silver jewelry, Minding The South is a splendid and enduring tribute to American Southern culture and custom.

Former show cave operator H. Dwight Weaver presents Missouri Caves in History and Legend, the concentrated essence of a lifetime of history and research into Missouri's caves created by limestone bedrock slowly dissolved by groundwater. Bringing the reader on a tour underground, Missouri Caves in History and Legend reveals what caves have to tell us about extinct species and early Native Americans; how caves were used to mine saltpeter, onyx, and guano; how caves became hideouts for Civil War soldiers and notorious outlaws such as Jesse James; and much more. A handful of black-and-white photographs illustrate this fascinating tour accessible to readers of all backgrounds - the next best thing to visiting Missouri's caves in person!

Dr. Robert P. Forbes is no stranger to students of the antebellum era. His previous articles have been noted for their clear readable style and scholarship. Dr. Forbes states the book took a long time to come into being as a finished work. The result shows a well thought out examination and interpretation which makes the wait worthwhile. His colleagues, experts in the field of antebellum history, state they "learned a great deal from the work." The real value of this work is in its examination not only of the well known history of the Missouri Compromise itself --the formulation and passage of the legislation--but the even more important aspects of the effect of this compromise and the devastating result of its being revoked. The book has enough meat in it to satisfy the most discerning scholar and a facile style to satisfy the general reader. This is a volume that belongs in the library of every student of history, of politics, social movement, and ultimtely the disolution of the Union. Congratulations to Robert Forbes for a great gift to us.

I bought this book while doing some (early) Christmas shopping. The book is intended for a friend of mine, who, himself is an outstanding nature photographer. I knew the photos inside the book would have to be "beyond belief" to appeal to my friend. When the book arrived, I could hardly wait to thumb through it. I couldn't believe my eyes. Each photo was better than the previous one. Not only does the book contain beautiful images, I (who am a non-birder) learned much about the birds of Missouri. Mr. Hackett also has a comprehensive forward in which he details his technqiue for capturing images such as the ones in the book. I highly recommend this book whether you live in Missouri or not.

Joel P. Rhodes (Associate Professor of History, Southeast Missouri State University) presents A Missouri Railroad Pioneer: The Life of Louis Houck, an extensively researched biography of business entrepreneur and self-taught railroader Louis Houck, who not only built an enterprise, but also brought art, culture, and formal education to all social classes. Though A Missouri Railroad Pioneer is at its heart an engaging glimpse into the life of a turn-of-the-century tycoon, railroad enthusiasts are sure to enjoy the insights into the evolution of America's railroad system. Written in plain terms for lay readers and historians alike, A Missouri Railroad Pioneer is a welcome addition to biography shelves.

The definitive book for literary criticism fans of Langston Hughes, one of the country's most important and gifted writers.

Original version published by Paul Fessler in H-Net Book Review for H-GAGCS listserv

An academic's recommendation of a book as a "good read", however, can often be regarded as suspect by undergraduates and general readers. Perhaps our overexposure to dissertations and monographs have perverted our sense of what constitutes an enjoyable and easy to read book. To counteract such biases and perversions, I asked my wife to read Hauser's book. This book passed my wife's test. If only all books published by academic presses could boast such accessibility.

Originally published in Germany in 1950, My Farm on the Mississippi was clearly written for a non-academic audience. In this brief, very accessible book, Heinrich Hauser, an opponent of the Nazi regime and wartime German refugee, turns his three years from 1945-1948 on a Missouri farm near the German-American community of Wittenberg into an engaging adventure story. This book caught the eye of Curt Poulton, a historical geographer and translator at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, who translated this work into English. Poulton argues that Hauser, as a German living among a German immigrant community in the wake of World War II, offers invaluable commentary upon this 1940s "postimmigrant America" where immigrants' native language and customs were still alive.

In 1939, Hauser, a prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction, escaped from Germany with his Jewish wife and two children. After unsuccessfully trying his hand at farming in upstate New York and then at city life in Chicago, Hauser and his wife yearned for the romantic fresh air of the proverbial American heartland. With no prospects or firm destination, Hauser set off for St. Louis and points southward in an old 1928 Packard in search of his dream farm. South of St. Louis and just north of Cape Girardeau, Hauser and his wife began passing signs to "Stuttgart", "Dresden", "Altenberg", and "Wittenberg". In Cape Girardeau, Hauser spotted a "Dr. Schultz" and paid this German-speaking physician a visit to inquire about the region and the German-sounding places. Working through the German-American subculture, Hauser soon bought a farmstead south of the town of Wittenberg, Missouri on the Mississippi floodplain.

Hauser recounts how his wife Rita and son Huc struggled to make the farm a working proposition for the next three years. Most of the profits, however, were used to provide care packages and other aid to their German friends and relatives back home. During the rest of the time, his family survives horrific floods, raging forest fires, and a comic shipwreck. During the summers, his son Huc devised plans and adventures such as making a boat with an outboard motor in ways reminiscent of a Little Rascals episode. By 1948, however, low crop prices and homesickness convinced the reluctant Hausers to return to Germany and abandon their Missouri farm.

Nevertheless, Hauser offers a useful window into this German-American society on the banks of the Mississippi. As Hauser notes, it is this region's rural isolation that permitted its German culture and language to survive both World War I and World War II and beyond. Hauser knew he was among his own kind when he saw women working the fields---a practice Americans generally avoided. In the local bars, these German-Americans would add salt to modify the sweet American beers like Falstaff and Budweiser. When the war in Europe was over, Hauser's family celebrated with a crowd of itinerant German-American lumber workers playing "schottiches" and singing songs such as "Am Brunnen vor dem Tore" and sea tunes like "In Hamburg da bin ich gewesen". Also particularly interesting (and useful for immigration and ethnicity courses) are Hauser's recollected interactions between these German-Americans and the nearby African-Americans.

Just as Alexis de Toqueville's Democracy in America offers an outsider's critique of early nineteenth-century America, Hauser's observations present a valuable perspective of postwar America, its rural traditions and ethnic relationships. Hauser is an "outsider/insider" within the postwar German-American community. Though an outsider as a recent German refugee, he can speak the language (both linguistically and theologically). This allowed him to enter into the culture and bring a unique perspective to bear upon it.

Because this book was originally written for a German audience unfamiliar with many aspects of American society and culture, Hauser's narrative is particularly instructive to an American audience today. For many undergraduate students in particular, Hauser's emphasis on the basics of everyday American life proves more fascinating to American readers today than when it was originally published. Approaching the daily life of the post-World War II America from the cultural distance of a foreigner is in many ways similar to the approach of today's readers and students separated from that cultural landscape by the passage of fifty years. Thus, Hauser's cultural observations, which may have seemed less interesting to an American reader in the 1950s when the work was first published are met with a much different perspective.

Without Poulton's sparkling translation, however, these observations would have lost much of their power to English readers. Poulton's work arouses comparisons to other recent and notable translations such as W.C. Kuniczak's translation of Heinrich Sienkiewicz's monumental Trilogy beginning with the novel "With Fire and Sword" (popular Polish nationalist fiction written during the late 19th century-a useful assignment for courses dealing with 19th century European nationalism, by the way). Poulton remains faithful to Hauser's intent to provide his readers with an adventure story. So dependent upon narrative flow and colorful description, this value and attraction of this work would have been irreparably harmed by a poor translation.

Readers interested in this approach should also see the superb collection of immigrant letters in News from the Land of Freedom by Kamphoefner, Helbich, and Sommer (Cornell University Press, 1991).

Printed on high quality paper and interspersed with full color photography, The Natural World of Lewis and Clark is an amazing interpretation of Lewis and Clark's famous exploratory expedition to the New World from a modern point of view. The latest cutting edge advances such as DNA research, understanding of proteins, and new laboratory techniques are applied to the expedition's observations in plain terms. Readily accessible to readers of all backgrounds, The Natural World of Lewis and Clark includes in-depth discussion of flora and fauna species mentioned in the expedition's writings, as well as comments on the expedition's interactions with Native Americans. A bibliography and index round out this thoughtful and welcome fresh perspective on one of the greatest voyages of discovery in American history.