The fourteen articles in this anthology, previously published in the Missouri Historical Review, examine multiple facets of Kansas City's history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beginning with events prior to the settlement of the area, the essays describe important episodes in the social, economic, racial, and political life of Kansas City. Boss Tom Pendergast, conflict between incoming Mormons and earlier settlers, and a young female teacher's experience in the 1840s all figure into this rich history of the Kansas City area.

This set of readings presents useful insights into urbanization and provides a fresh perspective on American cities and their inhabitants. Advancing the premise that it is not possible to understand how people live in cities without understanding how they think of them, the editor presents historical and contemporary materials that illustrate vividly the variety of ways in which Americans have viewed their cities, and urbanization in general.This book sheds light on what the city is and does by analyzing what its citizens think it should be and do. Its lively, readable selections include contributions from businessmen, ministers, journalists, reporters, city planners, and reformers, as well as sociologists. Strauss shows that Americans' views of cities have been profoundly influenced by their history of continental expansion, successive waves of immigration, massive industrialization and similar objective developments. He points out that certain perspectives or themes relations of social classes within the city, of country to city, of small city to big city, of city to region, etc.persist regardless of the social or historical perspective of the writer.The author's comprehensive introduction and his introductions to each section of the book delineate the thematic structure of the readings and guide the reader toward the insights and principles illuminated in the different sections. A fruitful contribution to courses in urban sociology, the book is a useful addition to the libraries of sociologists, political scientists, planners, and city officials who wish to understand more fully the contemporary urban milieu.

Sheds light on what the city is and does by analyzing what its citizens think it should be and do.

"Drawing on the recollections of renowned theater critic David Austin Latchaw and on newspaper archives of the era, Londre chronicles the "first golden age" of Kansas City theater, from the opening of the Coates Opera House in 1870 through the gradual decline of touring productions after World War I"--Provided by publisher.

While some cities owe their existence to lumber or oil, turpentine or steel, Kansas City owes its existence to food. From its earliest days, Kansas City was in the business of provisioning pioneers and traders headed west, and later with provisioning the nation with meat and wheat. Throughout its history, thousands of Kansas Citians have also made their living providing meals and hospitality to travelers passing through on their way elsewhere, be it by way of a steamboat, Conestoga wagon, train, automobile, or airplane. As Kansas City’s adopted son, Fred Harvey sagely noted, “Travel follows good food routes,” and Kansas City’s identity as a food city is largely based on that fact. Kansas City: A Food Biography explores in fascinating detail how a frontier town on the edge of wilderness grew into a major metropolis, one famous for not only great cuisine but for a crossroads hospitality that continues to define it. Kansas City: A Food Biography also explores how politics, race, culture, gender, immigration, and art have forged the city’s most iconic dishes, from chili and steak to fried chicken and barbecue. In lively detail, Andrea Broomfield brings the Kansas City food scene to life.

Originally published in 1961, Images of the American City examines how Americans dealt with the rapid shock of urbanization as it evolved from an agricultural nation. Working from the framework of a social psychologist, Anselm L. Strauss offers a deeper look into the sociological, psychological, and historical perspectives of urban development. He describes how the cultural changes of a space ultimately develop urban imagery by looking towards the urbanization of America from peoples' views of the cities rather than how the cities are themselves. Urban imageries are contrasted with the context of an ideal city and visitors' perspectives of cities. Strauss takes a step back to ask questions about what Americans think and have thought of their cities. How do these cities compare to the image of an ideal city? What are the different perspectives between a city-dweller and a visitor? He contrasts the tension between those within the city and those outside of its urban limits. Strauss describes how space and time are major themes in the symbolic urbanization of a city. He offers a macroscopic view of the city as a whole and shows how urban imageries evolved from changes in lifestyles. He then provides historical breakdowns of different regions of the country and how they were urbanized. This book documents and illustrates the change in American symbolization from the growth of American cities to the union of urbanity and rurality.

Kansas City is often seen as a mild-mannered metropolis in the heart of flyover country. But a closer look tells a different story, one with roots in the city’s complicated and colorful past. The decades between World Wars I and II were a time of intense political, social, and economic change—for Kansas City, as for the nation as a whole. In exploring this city at the literal and cultural crossroads of America, Wide-Open Town maps the myriad ways in which Kansas City reflected and helped shape the narrative of a nation undergoing an epochal transformation. During the interwar period, political boss Tom Pendergast reigned, and Kansas City was said to be “wide open.” Prohibition was rarely enforced, the mob was ascendant, and urban vice was rampant. But in a community divided by the hard lines of race and class, this “openness” also allowed many of the city’s residents to challenge conventional social boundaries—and it is this intersection and disruption of cultural norms that interests the authors of Wide-Open Town. Writing from a variety of disciplines and viewpoints, the contributors take up topics ranging from the 1928 Republican National Convention to organizing the garment industry, from the stockyards to health care, drag shows, Thomas Hart Benton, and, of course, jazz. Their essays bring to light the diverse histories of the city—among, for instance, Mexican immigrants, African Americans, the working class, and the LGBT community before the advent of “LGBT.” Wide-Open Town captures the defining moments of a society rocked by World War I, the mass migration of people of color into cities, the entrance of women into the labor force and politics, Prohibition, economic collapse, and a revolution in social mores. Revealing how these changes influenced Kansas City—and how the city responded—this volume helps us understand nothing less than how citizens of the age adapted to the rise of modern America.