This Place of Promise: A Historian's Perspective on 200 Years of Missouri History

Gary Kremer, executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri, connects the past to the present in his latest book as he ponders why history played out as it did over the course of two centuries since Missouri’s 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, even as he considers what being a Missourian has meant-across the many years and to this day-to all of the state’s people, and how the forces of history-time, place, race, gender, religion, and class-shaped the people of Missouri. Kremer presented his book talk as part of History on Elm series at the SHSMO Center for Missouri Studies in Columbia, Mo. on Dec. 12, 2023.