Books

The book robot, the automatic retrieval system for much of the collection of the Miller Nichols Library on the campus of UMKC, has inspired a flurry of artistic activity, from robot dances to art installations.

By Laura Spencer

Kansas City, MO – The image we have of 19th century slavery often comes from the Deep South, places like Georgia and Mississippi, where rich whites owned huge plantations, kept in business by a large, unpaid labor force of enslaved African Americans. But slavery in Missouri, and some of the other border states, looked very different from that.

By Christina DeVoss

Kansas City, Mo. – It's hard to ignore the place sex has in American culture. From magazines and movies to news reports on politicians and celebrities' latest sex scandals, sex is everywhere. Lara Blackwood Pickrel's new book puts the discussion about sex in another place: church.

Kansas City, Mo. –
As baseball remembered the contributions of Jackie Robinson last week, The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum brought in Robinson's daughter, Sharon Robinson, and Professor Michael Long, for a forum on Robinson's life.

Professor Long edited FIRST CLASS CITIZENSHIP; the Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson.

Here he speaks with KCUR's Laura Ziegler.

Special Thanks to The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum for recording the interview.

Kansas City, MO – Historian Thomas Frank first came to national attention in 2004, when his book What's The Matter With Kansas?, which explores the culture wars in our region, spent 18 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. Since that time, the political climate of Kansas has shifted a bit: Democrat Kathleen Sebelius was elected governor (and since left for Washington) and Democrats like Raj Goyle of Wichita have made gains in the statehouse.