This Place of Promise

Conceived of as a way to commemorate Missouris bicentennial of statehood, this unique work presents the perspective of Gary Kremer, one of the Show-Me States foremost historians, on how history has played out in the two centuries since Missouris admittance to the Union. In the writing of what is much more than a survey history, Kremer, himself a fifth-generation Missourian, infuses the narrative with his vast knowledge and personal experiences as he thoughtfully considers what being a Missourian has meantacross the many years and to this dayto all of the states people, and how the forces of historytime, place, race, gender, religion, and classshaped people and determined their opportunities and choices, in turn creating communities of collective experience that draw upon the past in order to try to make sense of the present and plan for the future.