Press Release: July 24, 2009
National Archives at Kansas City
Author Craig Miner to discuss Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858 at the National Archives
For More Information Contact:
Kimberlee Ried
(816) 268-8000
Kansas City, (MO)…The National Archives at Kansas City will host history author Craig Miner for a discussion and signing of his book Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858 on Thursday August 20, at 6 p.m. The National Archives at Kansas City is located at 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO. Attendees are encouraged to view The Kansas-Nebraska Act exhibit at the National Archives at Kansas City prior to Miner’s talk.
Miner’s book examines the media portrayal of Bleeding Kansas after the Kansas-Nebraska Act and how it affected national events. He argues that the extreme media language contributed greatly to the Civil War. Miner draws on dozens of newspapers and magazines from all parts of the country and of all political persuasions: a trove of rich quotations and unvarnished epithets, nearly all of them published for the first time. He reveals how the heated, polarizing rhetoric widened the sectional rift, weakened chances of accommodation, and contributed more to the onset of civil war than has been previously recognized. Miner shows what a tremendous obsession Kansas was for the nation--a whipping boy for sectional and political emotions--and how thoroughly it dominated the press in cities large and small, North and South.
Miner is the author of West of Wichita: Settling the High Plains of Kansas; Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854-2000; and Next Year Country: Dust to Dust in Western Kansas. He is the Willard Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History at Wichita State University. Copies of Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858 will be available for purchase from The Kansas City Store, onsite at the National Archives. For more information or to make a reservation, call 816-268-8093 or register by e-mailing: kansascity.educate@nara.gov.
The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 13 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to more than 50,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by nearly 100 Federal agencies. Serving the Central Plains Region, the archives holds records from the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The facility is located at 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108. The National Archives at Kansas City is open Tuesday–Saturday 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. for exhibits viewing and Tuesday–Saturday from 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. for research.
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