Episode 53: "On Slavery's Border" – Diane Mutti Burke (Bicentennial Book Club, Part 13)

Season 4 (2021-2022)

Episode Description

In honor of the state's 200th birthday, Our Missouri will feature a series throughout 2021 entitled "Bicentennial Book Club," which highlights influential books related to Missouri and examines how scholars, historians, and authors dissect major topics in the state's history. So, join the "Book Club" to hear about award-winning publications that detail the state's diverse history, as well as the stories behind the stories featured within their pages. In this episode, Diane Mutti Burke discusses her award-winning book, On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815-1865, as well as historiographical interpretations of slavery in Missouri.

Episode & Banner Image: Ridge Airy in Arrow Rock, Missouri, date unknown [Saline County, Missouri, Photograph Collection (P1137), SHSMO]

About the Guest

Diane Mutti Burke

Diane Mutti Burke is a professor of history and director of the Center for Midwestern Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Emory University. Her first book, On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815-1865, won the Missouri Conference on History Book Award in 2010. In addition to her award-winning book, she has also co-edited three anthologies on the Missouri/Kansas border region, including Kansas City, America’s Crossroads, co-edited with John Herron; Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border, co-edited with Jonathan Earle; and Wide Open Town: Kansas City during the Pendergast Era, co-edited with John Herron and Jason Roe.