The eleven essays included in this volume offer the most authoritative account yet published of the distinctively urban history of Springfield, Missouri-the largest city in the Ozarks. Essays on early history include Quinine and Courage: The Battle of Springfield, January 8, 1863, by William Garrett Piston and John C. Rutherford. Post-Civil War histories include Retail Rivals: Springfield’s Commercial Street versus the Public Square, 1870-1945, by Angela Wingo Miller, and Memories of Walter Majors: Searching for African American History in Springfield, by Richard L. Schur. Post-World War II histories include From Zenith to Nadir: The Story of Springfield’s Largest Manufacturing Plant, by Tim Knapp, and The Demise of O'Reilly Hospital and the Beginning of Evangel College, 1946-1955, by Lawrence J. Nelson. The volume concludes with Holly A. Baggett’s Creation of a Community: A History of Gay and Lesbian Springfield, 1945-2010.