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9781496233134

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Through this overdue telling of the skywalks collapse, readers confront powerful, disturbing questions about the ways truth and justice after a tragedy can be crushed by the quick social need for narrative consensus, and about the consequences that land on flawed but courageous dissenters like Robert Gordon. -James N. Leiker, coauthor of the award-winning The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory Skywalks is the story of an obsession. But the obsession belongs to lawyer Robert Gordon. R. Eli Paul, the retired head of the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library, has completed the job that Gordon could not. Paul brings not just rigor to the job but insight. This book is about influence and power in 1980s Kansas City, Missouri, and it is among the best literary nonfiction about place. -Max McCoy, award-winning author of Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River

Through this overdue telling of the skywalks collapse, readers confront powerful, disturbing questions about the ways truth and justice after a tragedy can be crushed by the quick social need for narrative consensus, and about the consequences that land on flawed but courageous dissenters like Robert Gordon. -James N. Leiker, coauthor of the award-winning The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory Skywalks is the story of an obsession. But the obsession belongs to lawyer Robert Gordon. R. Eli Paul, the retired head of the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library, has completed the job that Gordon could not. Paul brings not just rigor to the job but insight. This book is about influence and power in 1980s Kansas City, Missouri, and it is among the best literary nonfiction about place. -Max McCoy, award-winning author of Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River

"""Paul's account is clear and well-paced even as he takes the reader through the weeds of legal arguments, filings, and rulings. It is a laudable and worthy addition to the skywalks story.""—Steve Paul, Missouri Historical Review ""Skywalks departs from the established tick-tock formula of telling true-life disasters. Instead, it examines a very public tragedy through the unfinished work of a man who may have been driven mad by the weight of his search for truth and accountability.""—Max McCoy, Kansas History ""This book has something for nearly everyone. The reactions to personal suffering after a great calamity, the battles between integrity and greed, and legal wrangling are some of the most significant issues addressed. Any student of human nature will appreciate Paul's efforts.""—Steve Guenzel, Nebraska History ""In true whodunit fashion, R. Eli Paul has told Gordon's story.""—Charles E. Rankin, Roundup Magazine “Through this overdue telling of the skywalks collapse, readers confront powerful, disturbing questions about the ways truth and justice after a tragedy can be crushed by the quick social need for narrative consensus, and about the consequences that land on flawed but courageous dissenters like Robert Gordon.”—James N. Leiker, coauthor of the award-winning The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory “Skywalks is the story of an obsession. But the obsession belongs to lawyer Robert Gordon. R. Eli Paul, the retired head of the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library, has completed the job that Gordon could not. Paul brings not just rigor to the job but insight. This book is about influence and power in 1980s Kansas City, Missouri, and it is among the best literary nonfiction about place.”—Max McCoy, award-winning author of Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River"

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R. Eli Paul is the former director of the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library. His public history career has spanned four decades, including previous tenures at the Nebraska State Historical Society, Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, and the National World War I Museum. Paul is the author or editor of several books, including Eyewitness at Wounded Knee (Nebraska, 2016), Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas, and Blue Water Creek and the First Sioux War, 1854–1856.

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