University of Missouri Books

Dr. Roger Launius, who is the chief historian of NASA, has moved from space into examining the history of professional baseball in the state of Missouri. A great read. Launius tells all the stories concerning the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Browns, KC Royals, Monarchs, and KC A's and others. He blends compelling stories and anecdotes about each team's history(both Major League and Negro league) and their places in the overall history of baseball. Maybe the best concise history of baseball in a state ever written. A must for every baseball fan. I especially enjoyed the section on the Kansas City Athletics and their owner Charlie O. Finley. Buy this book.

Selected Correspondence 1950-1984, Volume 30,The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, edited with an introduction by Thomas A. Hollweck, (University of Missouri Press, 2007)941 pages, including photographs, index of correspondents and comprehensive general index.

This big volume is one of the last two of the 34 volume Collected Works to be published. (The other, Volume 29, is awaiting publication under the editorship of Professor Juergen Gebhardt.) The reader will find here 530 letters written by Eric Voegelin during the last 35 years of his life (1950-1984).

The volume contains a remarkable amount of analysis and insight not found in his books and essays as well as the restatement of his thought in fresh and more accessible ways.

Here are excerpts from some of the letters that caught my eye:

1. To Leo Strauss, on Karl Popper's The Open Society and its Enemies, he concludes his analysis with: "4. Popper engages in no textual analysis from which can be seen the author's intention; instead he carries the modern ideological clichés directly to the text, assuming that the text will deliver results in the sense of the clichés. . . . In its intellectual attitude it is the typical product of a failed intellectual; spiritually, one would have to use expressions like rascally, impertinent, loutish; in terms of technical competence, as a piece in the history of thought, it is dilettantish and as a result is worthless."(April 18th, 1950).

2. To Hannah Arendt, on her then new Origins of Totalitarianism, he concludes: "The talk about a change of human nature implies the anti-religious revolt against the imago dei. And the attempt to change this nature results (as you correctly say) in its destruction. The intellectual mischief of the 19th century of publicly discussing the possibilities of changing human nature would for instance have to stop; for (1) it is technically philosophical nonsense and (2) it is politically a public danger and, as the consequences show, complicity in murder." (March 16th, 1951).

3. To Alfred Schütz, on deficiencies in Max Weber's theorizing, not alluded to in The New Science of Politics out of respect for the memory of Weber: ". . . I would then see `theory' as a science of man and society that bases itself on an ontology in which the experiences of transcendence are acknowledged as constituents of the essence of man. All concepts of type in social science, therefore, must be based in the ontology in order to be theoretically tenable. And my main argument against Weber's types is the lack of such a foundation. Concepts like rational and traditional domination, for example, as far as I can see, are based in nothing more than a historical situation created by the French Revolution. . ." (April 30th, 1951).

4. To Friedrich Engel-Janosi: "Concretely speaking, it is not enough to condemn stupid people who let themselves be seduced by Voltaire; it would be the duty of Catholic writers to unmask Voltaire's impertinent ignorance with just this kind of headlong energy and such an 18th century Catholic thinker does not exist. The same problem we have today. Where are the Catholic thinkers--with the exception of de Lubac and Balthasar, who are treated miserably by the Church--who fight against the intellectual scandal of our time in such a way that intelligent, vital, idealistic young people would be fascinated by it?. . . . Sometimes I have the feeling that my intellectual achievement for the cultural problematic of the Church is greater than that of the professionals whose task it actually would be." (May 11th, 1951).

5. To Karl Löwith, on Heidegger's Sein und Zeit: "The night in Heidelberg in the winter of 1929 in which I devoured Being and Time like a detective novel is long gone. At that time I was very moved by the author's temperament and impressed by his technical competence. I would still acknowledge his temperament; as to his competence, in view of the crude nonsense he indulges in with the `unhidden,' I think doubts are permitted." (May 25th, 1952).

6. To Alfred Schütz, his famous long letter on the content of Christianity: "The fourth achievement, linked to the three preceding ones, is the critical understanding of theological speculation and its meaning, attained above all by Dionysius Areopagita and Thomas Aquinas. The centerpiece of Thomistic theology is the analogia entis, i.e., the recognition that theological judgments are not judgments in the sense of statements about the content of the world. The proposition `God is almighty' combines a transcendent subject (one of which we have no innerworldly experience, only an experience of faith) with an `idealized,' infinitized, innerworldly predicate. The proposition is therefore meaningless if both the subject and the predicate are taken literally; it makes sense only if the predicate is added analogically to the extrapolated subject of the experience of faith.

What the men of the 18th _century Enlightenment held against Christian dogmatics (enlightened thinkers are repeating it today), namely, that theological statements--unlike statements concerning sense perception--are meaningless because they cannot be verified, is the very starting point of Christian theology. On this point Thomas would agree with every Enlightener. Dogmatics is a symbolic web which explicates and differentiates the extraordinarily complicated religious experiences; furthermore, the order of these symbols is a descriptive system, not a rational system capable of being deduced from axioms (We must note the insistence of Thomas that Incarnation, Trinity, and other doctrines are rationally impenetrable, i.e., rationally meaningless.)

Here, it seems to me, lies the greatest value of Christian theology as a store of religious experiences amassed over more than a thousand years, which has been thoroughly analyzed and differentiated by Church Fathers and Scholastics in an extraordinary cooperative enterprise. To set up against this treasure hoard (without having an exhaustive knowledge of it) philosophical speculations of a monotheistic, pantheistic, dualistic, or any other kind, speculations which inevitably rest on individual thinkers' very limited experiences, seems to me, I am bound to say, brash mischief-making, even if the mischief is committed by thinkers such as Bruno or Hegel or William James." (January 1st, 1953).

7. To John H. Hallowell, on American political theology: "According to the Declaration of Independence all men are born free and equal--that is part of the American political theology--even if the very author of these words knew quite well that the successful existence of the society which he helped to found depended on the social effectiveness of a `natural aristocracy' which gave the lie to the phrase `free and equal.' One can, of course, honor the expounding of political theology with the name political philosophy--and that is what is merrily done all around us, with horrible consequences for political science . . ." (January 28th, 1953).

8. To Thomas H. Clancy, S.J., on evil means to attain good ends: "The term `evil means,' in my opinion, is ambiguous. If it means that political measures never must incidentally inflict misery on human beings, politics and order is impossible; one can only withdraw in quietistic suffering. Means should be termed evil only when (1) either the end is evil (and then even means that are moral in themselves would be evil in the light of the end), or (2) when the evil inflicted by the means is palpably greater than the good achieved by their use. . ." (April 26th, 1953). And further to the same man: ". . .the goodness of an act seems to me to depend to a considerable degree on the virtue of prudentia, under which I include the possession of adequate knowledge concerning the side-effects of action. And `adequacy' will have a wide range of variability according to the environment in which a man acts, and according to his social status. Example: I very much doubt the goodness of certain acts of President Roosevelt, not because I doubt the goodness of his intentions, but because I doubt his adequate knowledge of the practice of a Communist government, which a President of the United States should possess, but which I do not expect to come within the prudentia of my yard-man." (June 10th, 1953).

9. To Marshall McLuhan on his remorse at having wasted years: " And I respond to your excitement and bewilderment of the moment with feelings that are mixed of compassion and grim amusement. I would not complain too much about the time lost. We all lose time, for we have to disengage ourselves from the creeds of a dying world (I have lost more years than I care to remember with Neo-Kantianism and Phaenomenology, before I dropped the nonsense): and I am not so sure that the time is really lost, for if you have found the right way yourself you are much surer of it than you would be somebody had placed you on it right from the beginning." (July 17th, 1953).

And on and on it goes, insights and formulations, often brilliant, arising in letter after letter, year after year. Here is a last one, describing the conference at York University, Toronto, in November, 1978:

10. To Klaus Vondung on the Toronto conference: "The most refreshing thing was that the students had organized the conference independently of the faculty--in fact there was a certain air of tension, since no one from the Philosophy Department had been invited to speak, presumably because of subject-area incompetence. . . . I gave a lecture on `Structures in Consciousness,' in particular on the structure `Luminosity--Intentionality,' which I now recognize as the key pattern in understanding the language of symbols. In conjunction with these explorations the structure of Volume V [of Order and History] is now taking shape." (December 11th, 1978). [This conference was videotaped by York U. students and should be available on DVD sometime later this year, including the lecture Voegelin describes and two panels in which he participated with Hans-Georg Gadamer, Bernard Lonergan, Allan Bloom, Frederick Lawrence and Roger Poole.]

There are also letters relating to Voegelin's appearances and travels in the U.S and Europe, and descriptions of his professorships in the U.S. and Munich. There are interesting notes, such as one to the late William F. Buckley, Jr., declining an offer to become a regular contributor to his magazine and another expressing appreciation for receiving a volume of Buckley's writings.

The letters are a selection from the total correspondence and the selection was made by Professor Hollweck, once a doctoral candidate under Voegelin and now one of the general editors of The Collected Works and the editor of two other volumes in the series. The selection was made with the idea of helping the reader understand Voegelin's intellectual life as well as the changes in his career. Hollweck is as well qualified to undertake this task as anyone. I usually find introductions to be tedious and often tendentious, but he provides real insight. His well thought-out and persuasive Introduction is definitely worth reading and pondering.

As is pointed out in the Introduction, if one is collecting the correspondence for two people, as in the case of the Heilman-Voegelin or Strauss-Voegelin or the Schütz-Voegelin correspondence, the editor only needs the permission of two people or their literary executors. But when there are over 230 letter recipients and many of them are dead, and the book is already approaching a thousand pages with only the Voegelin side of the exchanges, an editor is forced to chose between the good to be had in the near or foreseeable future and the ideal, which recedes into the mists of time! So the decision was made to include only what Voegelin wrote and to compensate for this by providing footnotes to identify correspondents, works referenced in the texts, and when necessary, a sense of the occasion which brought forth the letter. Hollweck and Gebhardt together decided they would not "drown the letters in a vast apparatus of footnotes" and for this the reader can be grateful. At the same time there are a few letters where the lack of context makes one want to know much more. This lack of context can be easily repaired by looking at the recent volume of personal reminiscences, Voegelin Recollected --Conversations on a Life, edited by Barry Cooper and Jodi Bruhn (U. of Missouri Press, 2008).

A number of the letters had to be translated from the original German and this was done by Professor Hollweck assisted by Sandy Adler and William Petropulos. Letters written originally in German are identified as such. A serious effort was made to preserve, in translation,the sometimes acerbic and often humorous tone adopted by Voegelin--what the editor calls the "Krausian" character of the writing, named after the style employed by Karl Kraus, whose fearless criticism of Austrian and German politics, society, and language in the first four decades of the twentieth century deeply influenced Voegelin.

Professor Hollweck suggests that the Selected Correspondence will enable someone to write the intellectual biography of Voegelin at some time in the future. I prefer to think of this as a work standing on its own which enables a reader to form a deeper understanding of the man behind a half-century outpouring of profound thought. And because the editor is a gentleman and many correspondents were still living at the time this volume went to press, it may still be useful for a future biographer to seek out the entire stored correspondence in the archives at Stanford.

This is a book that can best be read and savored and digested over a period of time. And then later, one can profitably go back and reread it, because nowhere else in the Collected Works can some of these ideas and expressions be found, as well as the occasional refreshing restatement of ideas from the published books and essays. Highly recommended for both the serious student and the intellectually curious.

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A very sensitive and intelligent writer, Hales painted an honest and compelling story of an important time in history for a young college student. His description of his work, the land, and his discovery of self cause a reader to reflect on experiences that lead to finding meaningful life work. I recommend the book.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 - August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95. David Levering Lewis, a biographer, wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, W.E.B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism--scholarship, propaganda, integration, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity. After graduating from Fisk University in 1888, Du Bois took a bachelor's degree cum laude from Harvard College in 1890 (Harvard having refused to recognize the equivalency of his Fisk degree), and in 1892 received a stipend to attend the University of Berlin. While a student in Berlin, he travelled extensively throughout Europe, and came of age intellectually while studying with some of the most prominent social scientists in the German capital, such as Gustav von Schmoller. In 1896, Du Bois became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University. After teaching at Wilberforce University in Ohio and the University of Pennsylvania, he established the department of sociology at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University).

"The Souls of Black Folk" is the most well-known work of African-American W.E.B. Du Bois, a writer, leader, and civil rights activist. The book, published in 1903, contains several essays on race, some of which had been previously published in Atlantic Monthly magazine. Du Bois drew from his own experiences to develop this groundbreaking work on being African-American in American society. Outside of its notable place in African-American history, The Souls of Black Folk also holds an important place in social science as one of the first works to deal with sociology. In Living Black History, (p. 96) esteemed scholar and Du Bois biographer Manning Marable makes the following observation about the book: "Few books make history and fewer still become foundational texts for the movements and struggles of an entire people. The Souls of Black Folk occupies this rare position. It helped to create the intellectual argument for the black freedom struggle in the twentieth century. Souls justified the pursuit of higher education for Negroes and thus contributed to the rise of the black middle class. By describing a global color-line, Du Bois anticipated pan-Africanism and colonial revolutions in the Third World. Moreover, this stunning critique of how 'race' is lived through the normal aspects of daily life is central to what would become known as 'whiteness studies' a century later."

For Du Bois the problem of 20th century is problem of color line. Concept of double consciousness is looking thru eyes of others. Notion of authenticity what does it mean to be authentic? His idea is very Freudian. Du Bois says authenticity is a longing for Blacks, but impossible because blacks can't be authentic have to live another way. Cornell West says Du Bois is a pragmatist. He is connected to the Harlem Renaissance. Paul Gilroy says Du Bois is more connected with Pan Africanism experience of displaced Africans around the world. What does he mean "souls of Black folk"? It is a metaphor for spirituality. Book is meant to provide progress for black folks. Freedman's bureau had some success like schools. He had issue with B. T. Washington populist message of wanting blacks to concentrate on jobs not the vote, higher education, or civil rights. Du Bois resents Booker T. Washington as spokesperson for blacks. Critiques American materialism. Standard of human culture and lofty ideals of life, the talented tenth. Book is pioneering for 6 reasons: 1. Identification of hyphenated self. 2. Recognition of Black culture like music, the Blues vernacular culture. The soul of the nation itself, West says musically is key to text, it "sings" the "sorrow song" is motif of life. 3. Important to Harlem renaissance period. 4. Pioneering work of sociology and psychology. 5. Higher education is means to self realization. 6. Relations to economics drives development of black life.

Double consciousness. His double consciousness gives us a vivid picture of how tragic the racist discourse is, defined by skin color. Black or white thus it strengthens arguments that each race had unique properties thus polarizing us. His book gives us this understanding of our mind and self identity. If Blacks accept the racial divide they then deny equality. He does see a black identity and celebrates difference made real in Black experience. Celebrates difference made real in peoples experience and beyond our racial fictions. How does he do this, what is the key? It is music the "sorrows song." Those voicings, these songs speak to slow tragedy. He precedes each chapter with sorrow song. The doubleness of consciousness is extended throughout the work. They convey resistance and defiance. Last chapter how prejudice works on people. Whiteness is non race. The great chain of being, your place in society. Rise of Enlightenment human is now sovereign leads to systematic study of man.

Du Bois was investigated by the FBI, who claimed in May of 1942 that "his writing indicates him to be a socialist," and that he "has been called a Communist and at the same time criticized by the Communist Party." Du Bois visited Communist China during the Great Leap Forward. Also, in the 16 March 1953 issue of The National Guardian, Du Bois wrote "Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature." Du Bois was chairman of the Peace Information Center at the start of the Korean War. He was among the signers of the Stockholm Peace Pledge, which opposed the use of nuclear weapons. In 1950, he ran for the U.S. Senate on the American Labor Party ticket in New York and received 4% of the vote. He was indicted in the United States under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and acquitted for lack of evidence. W.E.B. Du Bois became disillusioned with both black capitalism and racism in the United States. In 1959, Du Bois received the Lenin Peace Prize. In 1961, at the age of 93, he joined the Communist Party USA.

Du Bois was invited to Ghana in 1961 by President Kwame Nkrumah to direct the Encyclopedia Africana, a government production, and a long-held dream of his. When, in 1963, he was refused a new U.S. passport, he and his wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, became citizens of Ghana, making them dual citizens of Ghana and the United States. Du Bois' health had declined in 1962, and on August 27, 1963, he died in Accra, Ghana at the age of ninety-five, one day before Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, or philosophy.

great anecdotes and interesting observations about changes in the sports world, journalism, and American culture.

Edited by Richard Peterson (Professor Emeritus of English, Southern Illinois University), The St. Louis Baseball Reader is a carefully selected anthology of writings by a wide variety of authors about St. Louis' two most famous baseball teams: the Cardinals and the Browns. Covering St. Louis baseball from its late-nineteenth-century origins to the amazing tales of its hall-of-fame players to how Jackie Robinson stood up to racism and Curt Flood challenged the reserve clause to modern-day games. Articles include "World Champs: Cardinals Wrap It Up" by Rick Hummel, "Browns in American League Since 1902" by Frederick J. Lieb, "The Cardinals' First Publicity Man" by Gene Karst, and many more. A delight for sports fans to page through or read straight cover to cover.

Compiled and edited by Eric Sandweiss (Carmony Associate Professor of History, Indiana University - Bloomington) St. Louis In The Century Of Henry Shaw: A View Beyond The Garden Wall is a collection of essays by notable contributions and was assembled and published in tribute to the 200th anniversary of the birth of philanthropist and entrepreneur Henry Shaw (1800-1889). Touching upon politics, ethnicity, business, literature, and more, these informed and informative treatises offer perspectives upon a thriving cultural center of 19th century America. Enhanced with a number of black-and-white illustrations, St. Louis In The Century Of Henry Shaw is a highly recommended contribution to 19th Century American History Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

This book is an excellent insider guide into both the university and the city of Saint Louis. The facts in this book are given by students, so it ultimately is the best guide into how SLU really is. I definitely recommend the book if you are considering SLU or even attending. I have learned so much about the university that I would otherwise would not have learned by reading this book. And it is by no means a boring read.... I found the university more desirable after reading it.

Journalist Harper Barnes' biography of David Rowland Francis,
American politician and diplomat whose career ranged from St. Louis in
America's heartland to the depths of Russia during the Bolshevik
revolution (1917-19), is full of surprises. As the youngest mayor of
St. Louis and governor of Missouri at the turn of the 20th century, he
lead progressive Democrats and fathered the St. Louis World's Fair in
1903-04. Appointed ambassador to Russia by President Woodrow Wilson, he
endured terrible hardships during its revolutionary period, aided by his
articulate and loyal friend and valet, African-American Philip Jordan.
Much of the Russian story reads like an exciting spy novel. Wonderfully
researched and well written, it is a compelling account that enriches
both United States' and international history. It captivates the reader
and offers heretofore unknown insights into not only a remarkable
American but United States foreign policy at a pivotal time in world
history.

This is a "classic" text on the Current and Jack's Fork rivers of Missouri. It's a must read for anyone interested in the two beautiful watersheds. The reader will tag along with the author and his wife as they canoe, camp, and explore the riverways. Hall provides his journeys in splendid detail capturing the imagination of those who charish and love nature and the Ozark riverways as much as he did.