Download or read book Kansas City and How It Grew 1822 2011 written by James R. Shortridge and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2012-11-07 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Think of Kansas City and you'll probably think of barbecue, jazz, or the Chiefs. But for James Shortridge, this heartland city is more than the sum of its cultural beacons. In Kansas City and How It Grew, 1822-2011, a prize-winning geographer traces the historical geography of a place that has developed over 200 years from a cowtown on the bend of the Missouri River into a metropolis straddling two states. He explores the changing character of the community and its component neighborhoods, showing how the city has come to look and function the way it does—and how it has come to be perceived the way it has. Proximity to Great Plains ranches and farms encouraged early and sustained success for Kansas City meatpackers and millers, and Shortridge shows how local responses to economic realities have molded the city's urban structure. He explores the parallel processes of suburbanization and the restructuring of older areas, and tells what happens when transportation shifts from rivers to railroads, then to superhighways and international airports. He also reveals what historians have missed by tending to focus attention only on one side or the other of the state boundary. The book is a virtual who's who of KC progress: without selective law enforcement under political boss Thomas Pendergast, Kansas City would not enjoy its legacy of jazz; without the gift of Thomas Swope's namesake park, upscale residential expansion likely would have gone east instead of south; and without J. C. Nichols, Johnson County suburbs would have developed in a less spectacular manner. Its insight into important molders of the city includes nearly forgotten names such as William Dalton, Charles Morse, and Willard Winner, plus important figures from more recent years including Kay Barnes, Charles Garney, and Bonnie Poteet. With more than 50 photos and dozens of maps specially created for this book, Kansas City and How It Grew is unique in treating the entire metropolitan area instead of just one portion. With coverage ranging from ethnic neighborhoods to development strategies, it's an indispensable touchstone for those who want to try to understand Kansas City as both a city and a place.

Download or read book This Is Kansas City written by Angela Kmeck and published by . This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Storied Scandalous Kansas City written by Karla Deel and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to Kansas City—the best town this side of Hell. The Paris of the Plains. Home to the Wettest Block in the World. This collection celebrates a storied history of one notorious city. Meet the mobsters and victims, bootleggers, madams, political bosses and raucous entertainers who truly brought the party to the plains even during Prohibition. Witness the best parades, the wackiest costumes and the wildest scams. Kansas City’s sordid underbelly is full of surprises sure to delight and entice—the odd, macabre and delightful. ,

Download or read book Kansas City written by Andrea L. Broomfield and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-02-25 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book K C written by Andrew Theodore Brown and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interpretive history covering the early 1800s to present that details the success story behind Kansas City's exciting growth.

Download or read book Secret Kansas City A Guide to the Weird Wonderful and Obscure written by Anne Kniggendorf and published by Reedy Press LLC. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most visitors know all about Kansas City’s barbecue, jazz, and football success, but there are hidden gems and wild pieces of trivia around every turn in Missouri’s largest city. Is the giant Hereford bull anatomically correct? Can a seed that’s been to outer space still grow into a normal tree? And who really killed President William Henry Harrison? You’ll find answers to the questions you didn’t know you had in Secret Kansas City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. Learn why three completely unrelated groups have chosen Kansas City as the center of the world and the place you want to be when the world ends. Between these covers, you’ll also find castles, a horse buried in a cul-de-sac, a ghost who likes a good laugh, and the world’s longest snake. This is not a tour guide for outsiders; it’s a scavenger hunt—insiders only, please. Longtime Kansas Citian Anne Kniggendorf is at your service to bolster your love and boost your respect for this middle-of-the-map city. With her eye for the odd leading the way, you’ll have a great time discovering Kansas City.

Download or read book History of Kansas City Missouri written by Theodore Spencer Case and published by . This book was released on 1888 with total page 950 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Story of Kansas City written by and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Story of Kansas City written by Emma Serl and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Kansas City Noir written by Steve Paul and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of sinister stories set in Kansas City features contributions from such noted mystery authors as Daniel Woodrell, Nancy Pickard, and J. Malcolm Garcia.

Download or read book Kansas City Jazz written by Frank Driggs and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-05-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There were but four major galaxies in the early jazz universe, and three of them--New Orleans, Chicago, and New York--have been well documented in print. But there has never been a serious history of the fourth, Kansas City, until now. In this colorful history, Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix range from ragtime to bebop and from Bennie Moten to Charlie Parker to capture the golden age of Kansas City jazz. Readers will find a colorful portrait of old Kaycee itself, back then a neon riot of bars, gambling dens and taxi dance halls, all ruled over by Boss Tom Pendergast, who had transformed a dusty cowtown into the Paris of the Plains. We see how this wide-open, gin-soaked town gave birth to a music that was more basic and more viscerally exciting than other styles of jazz, its singers belting out a rough-and-tumble urban style of blues, its piano players pounding out a style later known as "boogie-woogie." We visit the great landmarks, like the Reno Club, the "Biggest Little Club in the World," where Lester Young and Count Basie made jazz history, and Charlie Parker began his musical education in the alley out back. And of course the authors illuminate the lives of the great musicians who made Kansas City swing, with colorful profiles of jazz figures such as Mary Lou Williams, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Rushing, and Andy Kirk and his "Clouds of Joy." Here is the definitive account of the raw, hard-driving style that put Kansas City on the musical map. It is a must read for everyone who loves jazz or American music history.

Download or read book Wide Open Town written by Diane Mutti Burke and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Hometown Beer written by H. James Maxwell and published by . This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Passion for Purpose written by Sly James and published by Ascend Books. This book was released on 2019-07-24 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this candid autobiography that seamlessly incorporates political philosophy, the life story of Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Sylvester "Sly" James is told in a fast-paced, entertaining, informative, and authentic style. Elected to the mayor's office in 2011 as a political outsider, James immediately made his mark with his unflinching candor. That tone carries over to this book, as James holds nothing back when detailing the life experiences that shape his core values and beliefs. James strongly believes the only government that runs efficiently is local government, and he details how politics on the civic level should be implemented on the state and federal stages. Although he was elected in a nonpartisan process, James reveals his strong and reasoned political leanings. A fierce advocate for children, James has targeted reading proficiency for third graders as a benchmark for success in later life. Consistent with this, Education is the first of the "4 E Agenda" he created as mayor, along with Employment, Efficiency, and Enforcement. The product of all-black neighborhoods, James always felt comfortable interacting with people different from himself--whether it be in forms of race, religion, ethnicity, or beliefs. In an era when segregation was still the norm, James attended a predominantly-white Catholic high school, was the sole black member in a rock band, and later entered into a mixed-race marriage. When he became the first black lawyer for a prestigious Kansas City law firm, James immediately thrived by showcasing his intelligence and work ethic. Along with his service during the Vietnam War era, these experiences laid the foundation for James to become mayor of a city that still bears the signs of an unofficially-segregated past. When he won re-election to the office in 2015 with an amazing 87 percent of the vote, it was a crystal clear indication that James is first and foremost a unifier of the people. A Passion For Purpose serves not just as the title of this revealing and perceptive book, but also as the mantra by which Sly James based his tenure as mayor--and his life.

Download or read book Open City written by William Ouseley and published by Leathers Pub. This book was released on 2008 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Open City is an historical work detailing and analyzing the birth and growth of an organized crime "family" in Kansas City during the first 50 years of the 20th Century. It began with a Mafia-like clan labeled the Black Hand, its roots planted in the secret crime societies of Southern Italy and Sicily - a band of extortionists victimizing the city's "Little Italy" community in the early 1900s. From modest beginnings, the development of the criminal outfit is traced through prohibition, its alliance with the Pendergast Machine, the roaring 20s, Home Rule, the wide open 30s, the birth of La Cosa Nostra, and hard times in the 50s. It is the story of Kansas City, politics, powerful and colorful mob bosses, gangland murders, racket activities, and courageous police officers and reformers. Book jacket.

Download or read book The Story of Kansas City written by Emma Serl and published by . This book was released on 1945 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Elmwood Cemetery written by Bruce Mathews and published by . This book was released on 2010-09-27 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps nowhere in the Kansas City community does the Kansas City story unfold more poignantly than in the life stories of the people buried in historic Elmwood Cemetery. These people, and their counterparts who rest in other burial grounds in Greater Kansas City, are the individuals who gave us the Kansas City Spirit. Elmwood Cemetery: Stories of Kansas City will take you on a rich journey of discovery as the authors ... some two dozen community leaders recruited by professional photographer and Elmwood Cemetery trustee Bruce Mathews ... bring to life the stories of people who made Kansas City a thriving, diverse community, with respect for the past and an eye toward the future. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Elmwood Cemetery was founded in 1872 at 4900 Truman Road in Kansas City, Mo. Its beautiful grounds, designed by noted landscape architect George Kessler, are a repository for some 36,000 souls some famous, some infamous, some altogether unknown. Their stories trace Kansas City from its earliest days as a frontier town, through boom years when railroads first rumbled across the Missouri River, and into the 20th century, when stockyards flourished and downtown buildings muscled their way onto the skyline. Featuring the photography of Bruce Mathews. Foreword by Adele Hall. Royalty proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to the Elmwood Cemetery Society.