The law offices of Shook, Hardy & Bacon present Kansas City style: A social and cultural history of Kansas City as seen through its lost architecture

by Dory DeAngelo, Jane Fifield Flynn

Book by Dory DeAngelo, Jane Fifield Flynn

232 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1992

Reviews

[Longfellow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sure I have Wendell Berry to thank for my checking out this book. He has pushed me toward a desire of learning about my own "place," and while I'm a suburban product, my suburb is essentially a product of Kansas City. You might say K.C. is my "grandfather place," and DeAngelo and co-author have done a fantastic job of telling the history of K.C. "through its lost architecture."

I haven't read all of this yet, but I'm going to have to return it to the library, as it has been a trusty source of procrastination from more pressing responsibilities. I couldn't seem to put this book down for a couple days - so many photographs of majestic K.C. buildings that exist now only as exactly that: photographs. The subtitle delivers as promised: this book is truly a "social and cultural history," introducing me to many influential persons and places I've heard about but about which I have known little. Can't wait to own a copy of this and visit these places one by one, placing the transparency of the city I see now over the one that was.