Former Missouri archivist Gary Kremer, one of the state’s foremost historians, discusses the latest of his 12 books, This Place of Promise: A Historian's Perspective on 200 Years of Missouri History.

It examines the how and why of two centuries’ worth of events leading up to Missouri’s 2021 anniversary of statehood. For Kremer, a fifth-generation Show-Me-Stater, that history is personal; he aims to get at the heart of what it means to see himself as part of the state’s past and present. He also discusses how the forces of history have shaped other Missourians and the opportunities available to them both in the past and in the years to come.

Kremer has served as executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri and is a senior fellow in its Center for Missouri Studies. He has written about George Washington Carver, women in Missouri history, and the African American experience in the state. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Missouri Historical Review.