City of Dust : A Cement Company Town in the Land of Tom Sawyer
ISBN: 9780826264121
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / University of Missouri Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: History;

Mark Twain's boyhood home of Hannibal, Missouri, often brings to mind romanticized images of Twain's fictional characters Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer exploring caves and fishing from the banks of the Mississippi River. In City of Dust, Gregg Andrews tells another story of the Hannibal area, the very real story of the exploitation and eventual destruction of Ilasco, Missouri, an industrial town created to serve the purposes of the Atlas Portland Cement Company. In this new edition, Andrews provides an introduction detailing the impact of this book since its initial publication in 1996. He writes of a new twist in the Ilasco saga, one that concerns the Continental Cement Company's attempt, not unlike Atlas's one hundred years earlier, to manipulate the sale of a piece of land near its plant in the town. He explores the uneasy relationship between preservationists and the plant's CEO and officials in St. Louis; the growing movement to preserve Ilasco's heritage, including the building of a monument to commemorate the early residents of the town; and the grassroots petition drive and letter-writing campaign that stopped the Continental Cement Company's machinations.

Gregg Andrews was born in Hannibal, Missouri, and grew up in Ilasco. He is Professor of History at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and the Assistant Director of the Center for Texas Music History. Andrews is also the author of Insane Sisters, or, the Price Paid for Challenging a Company Town (University of Missouri Press) and Shoulder to Shoulder? The American Federation of Labor, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1924.

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