Author Description

As St. Louis celebrates the 250th year since its founding, Ethnic St. Louis highlights the many communities that make St. Louis a vibrant, multi-ethnic city. Their stories-accompanied by rare photography-fill the new book Ethnic St. Louis, a rich tapestry of the people and cultures that have enriched the Gateway City throughout its history. From long-established French, German, and Irish communities, through the African American community, and the more recent arrivals of Vietnamese and Bosnian immigrants, this volume covers a broad spectrum of groups that shaped St. Louis history and daily life. Photo-illustrated vignettes convey why each community settled in St. Louis, how they changed through the years, and how they contributed to local progress and growth. A first-of-its-kind compendium, Ethnic St. Louis demonstrates the importance of diverse communities to the city's rich past, complex current identity, and interconnected future.