Missouri: A History Book

Missourians could hardly have made a more appropriate decision than to name their capital after Thomas Jefferson. A meeting place of major rivers, Missouri became a gateway to the beckoning West opened up to Americans by Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase. In the era of overland traders and steamboat pilots, of Thomas Hart Benton and Mark Twain, life in Missouri was strongly flavored by the Jeffersonian spirit—expressed in a suspicion of large cities, a belief that mankind flourished best in a rural setting, a faith in the free individual as the guardian of liberty, and a steady insistence that the powers granted to government must be limited.

The Civil War and the century that followed it brought Missouri a time of tribulation. Machines mastered nature, and new forces prepared the way for a society of giant cities, business goliaths, and expanding government. Skeptical Missourians nonetheless challenged Americans to rediscover their heritage, and into the era of Harry Truman they stood fast by their "Show Me" attitude, questioning much of what passed for progress in the fast-changing nation.

Missouri is still profoundly shaped by its cherished Jeffersonian legacy, Nagel argues. St. Louis and Kansas City, major metropolitan areas on the east and the west, vie for power with the state's rural areas in a continuing struggle between city and country.

First published in 1977 as part of the Norton bicentennial series on The States and the Nation, a project of the American Association for State and Local History, Missouri appears now for the first time in paperback.

Author Biography: PAUL C. NAGEL brings to this portrait of Missouri's past the perspective of a native. Born in Independence, the descendant of German immigrants, he is a former professor of history at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and a former vice president for academic affairs in the University of Missouri system. Among his most important books are Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family, The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters, and Extraordinary Lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography, all three Book-of-the-Month Club selections.

Journal of American History

Nagel admirably suggests the values, ambiance, and character of the state from an historical perspective.