fully booked
Recent and upcoming faculty-authored works include poetry, local and national history
W
hen the J o p l i n Public Library celebrated the start of 2022 with a series of posts about the top circulating books of 2021, a book about the history of the storied Connor Hotel was among the top five in the Adult Non-Fiction category.
of Thomas Connor, a wealthy land speculator who died before its completion.
Published last year by The History Press, “Joplin’s Connor Hotel” was written by Dr. Chad Stebbins, director of the Institute of International Studies at Missouri Southern.
‘At War with King Alcohol’
“The book has had an overwhelming response locally,” says Stebbins. “I’ve given about 15 different presentations to various civic groups and have three more scheduled this spring. People are intrigued and fascinated with our local history.” The Connor Hotel opened in April 1908, at a time when Joplin was a lead and zinc mining boomtown. Located on the northwest corner of Fourth and Main streets, it was the creation
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“The hotel gave Joplin a touch of elegance and grandeur,” says Stebbins. His book also documents how, in November of 1978, the hotel was in the national spotlight due to its premature collapse as it was being prepared for demolition. It’s just one of several faculty-penned works that are in the works or have recently been published.
Dr. Megan Bever, associate professor history and chair of the Social Science Department, has written “At War with King Alcohol: Debating Drinking and Masculinity in the Civil War.” Set for publication in late summer by the University of North Carolina Press, Bever says the book is a project that grew out of her dissertation and interest in reform movements such as temperance and Prohibition. “(The book) looks at how the military used liquor during the Civil War,” she says. “It also
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SPRING 2022
