Vol. 120, No. 4, July 2026

Feature Articles

  • Snake County Sojourn: McDonald County, Joplin, and the Birth of the Ozarks Playground Association, by Kimberly Harper
  • The Americanization of an Italian War Bride in Missouri: Liliana Maria Palmigiani, 1946-2015, by Larry Gragg
  • The Strange Career of Collective Bargaining for Missouri Teachers, by Doug Genens

From the Stacks

Research Center–Columbia

  • The Limits of Interpretation: Rediscovering the Original Context of Thomas Hart Benton's World War II Image of an African American Soldier, by Joan Stack

Book Reviews

  • Mark Twain, by Ron Chernow
    Reviewed by Bruce Michelson
  • Guns, Furs, and Gold: An American West History of Indigenous People and Explorers, by Larry E. Morris
    Reviewed by John R. Legg
  • Faith, Family, and Flag: Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America, by Joanna Dee Das
    Reviewed by Anthony Harkins
  • Interstate '85: The Royals, the Cardinals, and the Show-Me World Series by Marshall Garvey
    Reviewed by Todd Cleveland
  • The Devil's Own Purgatory: The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War, by Robert Gudmestad
    Reviewed by Steven J. Ramold
  • The Day They Hung Old Brown: The Making of Celebrity and Martyrdom in the Civil War Era, by John R. Van Atta
    Reviewed by Amy Laurel Fluker

Book Notes

  • Historic Jefferson City Hotels, by Michelle Brooks
  • Around the Bend: Floating Down the Missouri River, by Lisa G. Dill
  • Jefferson's Spy: Volume I, The Secret Life of Meriwether Lewis, by Tony L. Turnbow
  • Route 66 Recipes: A Culinary Cruise along the Mother Road, by Amy Bizzarri
  • Mark Twain Remembered: An Anecdotal Biography, edited by Gary Scharnhorst 
  • Decisions on Western Waters: The Twenty-Seven Critical Decisions that Defined the Operations, by Michael D. Becker

Index to Volume 120

News in Brief

Cover Description

Laundry, by Frank Huntington Stack (1937-2026). Oil on canvas, gift of the artist.