Download or read book Cowboy Politics written by John S. Nelson and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cowboy Politics uses key works of literature, film, and television to explore how westerns address political challenges of Western civilization. This book tracks how westerns supplement liberal politics with republican, populist, perfectionist, and environmentalist politics.
Download or read book Cowboy Presidents written by David A. Smith and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2021-02-11 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For an element so firmly fixed in American culture, the frontier myth is surprisingly flexible. How else to explain its having taken two such different guises in the twentieth century—the progressive, forward-looking politics of Rough Rider president Teddy Roosevelt and the conservative, old-fashioned character and Cold War politics of Ronald Reagan? This is the conundrum at the heart of Cowboy Presidents, which explores the deployment and consequent transformation of the frontier myth by four U.S. presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. Behind the shape-shifting of this myth, historian David A. Smith finds major events in American and world history that have made various aspects of the “Old West” frontier more relevant, and more useful, for promoting radically different political ideologies and agendas. And these divergent adaptations of frontier symbolism have altered the frontier myth. Theodore Roosevelt, with his vigorous pursuit of an activist federal government, helped establish a version of the frontier myth that today would be considered liberal. But then, Smith shows, a series of events from the Lyndon Johnson through Jimmy Carter presidencies—including Vietnam, race riots, and stagflation—seemed to give the lie to the progressive frontier myth. In the wake of these crises, Smith’s analysis reveals, the entire structure and popular representation of frontier symbols and images in American politics shifted dramatically from left to right, and from liberal to conservative, with profound implications for the history of American thought and presidential politics. The now popular idea that “frontier American” leaders and politicians are naturally Republicans with conservative ideals flows directly from the Reagan era. Cowboy Presidents gives us a new, clarifying perspective on how Americans shape and understand their national identity and sense of purpose; at the same time, reflecting on the essential mutability of a quintessentially national myth, the book suggests that the next iteration of the frontier myth may well be on the horizon.
Download or read book Cowboy Conservatism written by Sean P. Cunningham and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2010-07-02 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Cunningham provides a vivid, informative, and frequently insightful chronicle of Texas politics between 1963 and 1980.” —Journal of American History During the 1960s and 1970s, Texas was transformed by a series of political transitions. After more than a century of Democratic politics, the state became a Republican stronghold virtually overnight, and by 1980, it was known as “Reagan Country.” Ultimately, Republicans dominated the Texas political landscape, holding all twenty-seven of its elected offices and carrying former governor George W. Bush to his second term as president with more than 61 percent of the Texas vote. In Cowboy Conservatism, Sean P. Cunningham examines the remarkable origins of Republican Texas. Utilizing extensive research drawn from the archives of four presidential libraries, gubernatorial papers, local campaign offices, and oral histories, Cunningham presents a compelling narrative of modern conservatism as it evolved in one of the nation’s largest and most politically important states. Cunningham analyzes the political changes that took place in Texas during the tumultuous seventeen-year period between John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the election of Ronald Reagan. He explores critical issues related to the changing political scene in Texas, including the emergence of “law and order,” race relations and civil rights, the slumping economy, the Vietnam War, and the rise of a politically active Christian Right, as well as the role of iconic politicians such as Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, John Connally, and John Tower. Cowboy Conservatism demonstrates Texas’s distinctive and vital contributions to the transformation of postwar American politics, revealing a vivid portrait of modern conservatism in one of the nation’s most fervent Republican strongholds.
Download or read book Dream West written by Douglas Brode and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While political liberals celebrated the end of “cowboy politics” with the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, political conservatives in the Tea Party and other like-minded groups still vociferously support “cowboy” values such as small government, low taxes, free-market capitalism, and the right to bear arms. Yet, as Douglas Brode argues in this paradigm-shifting book, these supposedly cowboy or “Old West” values hail not so much from the actual American frontier of the nineteenth century as from Hollywood’s portrayal of it in the twentieth century. And a close reading of Western films and TV shows reveals a much more complex picture than the romanticized, simplistic vision espoused by the conservative right. Examining dozens of Westerns, including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Red River, 3:10 to Yuma (old and new), The Wild Ones, High Noon, My Darling Clementine, The Alamo, and No Country for Old Men, Brode demonstrates that the genre (with notable exceptions that he fully covers) was the product of Hollywood liberals who used it to project a progressive agenda on issues such as gun control, environmental protection, respect for non-Christian belief systems, and community cohesion versus rugged individualism. Challenging us to rethink everything we thought we knew about the genre, Brode argues that the Western stands for precisely the opposite of what most people today—whether they love it or hate it—believe to be the essential premise of “the only truly, authentically, and uniquely American narrative form.”
Download or read book Cecil Andrus written by Cecil D. Andrus and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andrus, four-term governor of Idaho and former US Secretary of the Interior under President Carter, brings his irascible charm to the task of reflecting upon his life as a politician. He reminisces frankly and honestly, giving particular attention to his fight to preserve the environment in his home state and throughout the nation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Cowboy in the Roundhouse written by Bruce King and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic tale of political intuitions spiced by New Mexico flavor as unique as Hatch green chile, this autobiography of Governor Bruce King makes lively reading for anyone interested in politics, history, cowboys, ranching, and the American West.
Download or read book Socialist Cowboy written by Larry Savage and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Socialist Cowboy is a political biography detailing the life and activism of longtime New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos, one of the most colourful and controversial political personalities in the history of Ontario politics. Throughout his illustrious twenty-three year career as a member of the Ontario legislature, Kormos's unapologetic commitment to democratic socialism and his shoot-from-the-hip brand of small-town populism won him strong accolades back in his blue-collar hometown of Welland, while raising eyebrows at Queen's Park and within his own party. From his days as a student strike leader, to his short-lived time in Bob Rae's cabinet, to his run for the Ontario NDP leadership and his epic battles with the province's political establishment, the book chronicles Kormos's political trajectory, through interviews and archival research, with a view to unpacking the ideas and traits that have made him a New Democrat icon.
Download or read book The Great Cowboy Strike written by Mark Lause and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2018-01-16 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When cowboys were workers and battled their bosses In the pantheon of American icons, the cowboy embodies the traits of “rugged individualism,” independent, solitary, and stoical. In reality, cowboys were grossly exploited and underpaid seasonal workers, who responded to the abuses of their employers in a series of militant strikes. Their resistance arose from the rise and demise of a “beef bonanza” that attracted international capital. Business interests approached the market with the expectation that it would have the same freedom to brutally impose its will as it had exercised on native peoples and the recently emancipated African Americans. These assumptions contributed to a series of bitter and violent “range wars,” which broke out from Texas to Montana and framed the appearance of labor conflicts in the region. These social tensions stirred a series of political insurgencies that became virtually endemic to the American West of the Gilded Age. Mark A. Lause explores the relationship between these neglected labor conflicts, the “range wars,” and the third-party movements. The Great Cowboy Strike subverts American mythology to reveal the class abuses and inequalities that have blinded a nation to its true history and nature
Download or read book New Deal Cowboy written by Michael Duchemin and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best known to Americans as the “singing cowboy,” beloved entertainer Gene Autry (1907–1998) appeared in countless films, radio broadcasts, television shows, and other venues. While Autry’s name and a few of his hit songs are still widely known today, his commitment to political causes and public diplomacy deserves greater appreciation. In this innovative examination of Autry’s influence on public opinion, Michael Duchemin explores the various platforms this cowboy crooner used to support important causes, notably Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and foreign policy initiatives leading up to World War II. As a prolific performer of western folk songs and country-western music, Autry gained popularity in the 1930s by developing a persona that appealed to rural, small-town, and newly urban fans. It was during this same time, Duchemin explains, that Autry threw his support behind the thirty-second president of the United States. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, Duchemin demonstrates how Autry popularized Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and made them more attractive to the American public. In turn, the president used the emerging motion picture industry as an instrument of public diplomacy to enhance his policy agendas, which Autry’s films, backed by Republic Pictures, unabashedly endorsed. As the United States inched toward entry into World War II, the president’s focus shifted toward foreign policy. Autry responded by promoting Americanism, war preparedness, and friendly relations with Latin America. As a result, Duchemin argues, “Sergeant Gene Autry” played a unique role in making FDR’s internationalist policies more palatable for American citizens reluctant to engage in another foreign war. New Deal Cowboy enhances our understanding of Gene Autry as a western folk hero who, during critical times of economic recovery and international crisis, readily assumed the role of public diplomat, skillfully using his talents to persuade a marginalized populace to embrace a nationalist agenda. By drawing connections between western popular culture and American political history, the book also offers valuable insight concerning the development of leisure and western tourism, the information industry, public diplomacy, and foreign policy in twentieth-century America.
Download or read book Cowboy Conservatism written by Sean P. Cunningham and published by . This book was released on with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1960s and 1970s, Texas was rocked by a series of political transitions. Despite its century-long heritage of solidly Democratic politics, the state became a Republican stronghold virtually overnight, and by 1980 it was known as "Reagan Country." Ultimately, Republicans dominated the Texas political landscape, holding all twenty-seven of its elected offices and carrying former governor George W. Bush to his second term as president with more than 61 percent of the Texas vote. Sean P. Cunningham examines the remarkable history of Republican Texas in Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the R.
Download or read book Deep in the Heart written by James McEnteer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2004-07-30 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cowboy politics is in. When George W. Bush announced a new American policy of pre-emptive attack against potential enemies in 2002, he ushered in the triumph of Texas values over the American agenda. This book traces in lucid and engaging style the fascinating influence of the Texas warrior culture from the Alamo to the present day. This is not a history of Texas, but much Texas history is entwined with American national politics. This book locates such diverse phenomena as Cold War politics, the Kennedy assassination, U.S.-Mexican immigration policies, Texas death penalty practices, and recent U.S. Middle East policy in the context of this Alamo attitude. While the Texas influence has always been strong, and has ebbed and flowed, never has it been stronger, especially as a guiding force in American foreign policy. Today, people around the world perceive this Manifest Destiny swaggering style in our foreign policy. Because of its sheer size, its border wars with Mexico, its ten-year history as an independent republic, and its having been settled by a warrior culture originating in the English-Scottish borderlands and arriving in Texas via the southern Appalachians, Texas is unique in American politics. The author does not assert that Texas causes, or is the sole cause of, our various policies or of so many violent events. Rather, he demonstrates convincingly that the Texas warrior culture provides a fascinating context for national politics in a way that no other state's political culture can claim.
Download or read book Communists Cowboys and Queers written by David Savran and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Commie Cowboys written by Ryan W. McMaken and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Western genre has long been associated with right-wing and libertarian politics, and is said to promote individualism and free-market economics. In a new look at the Western, however, Ryan McMaken shows that the Western is in fact often anti-capitalist, and in many ways, the genre attacks the dominant ideology of nineteenth-century America: classical liberalism. The classical Westerns of the mid-twentieth century often feature wealthy capitalist villains who oppress the cowardly and defenseless shopkeepers and farmers of the frontier. The gunfighter, a representative of the law and order provided by the nation-state, intervenes to provide safety and justice. In addition to attacks on capitalism, the Western attacks other prized values of the bourgeois middle classes including Christianity, education and urbanization. McMaken examines these themes as used in the films of John Ford, Anthony Mann, and Howard Hawks. These pioneers of the classical Westerns are then contrasted with later innovators such as Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood. Also included are discussions of the role of the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE series, Victorian literature, and the nature of crime on the historical frontier. With a foreword by Paul A. Cantor, author of GILLIGAN UNBOUND and THE INVISIBLE HAND IN POPULAR CULTURE.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Politics of the American West written by Steven L. Danver and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 888 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of Politics in the American West is an A to Z reference work on the political development of one of America’s most politically distinct, not to mention its fastest growing, region. This work will cover not only the significant events and actors of Western politics, but also deal with key institutional, historical, environmental, and sociopolitical themes and concepts that are important to more fully understanding the politics of the West over the last century.
Download or read book Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands written by Roger L. Di Silvestro and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the 26th President's turbulent years spent as a rancher in the Dakota Territory Badlands reveals how his experiences shaped his subsequent values as a conservationist and his role in influencing national perspectives on wildlife and the cattle industry. 30,000 first printing.
Download or read book The Political Culture of the New West written by Jeff Roche and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2008-10-28 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From wildcatting Texas oilmen to Colorado rock climbers, from hipster capitalists to populist moralizers, westerners have proven themselves to be a highly individualistic breed of American-as much in their politics as in their vocations or lifestyles. This first book on the landscape of the American West's politics looks beyond red state/blue state assumptions to explore how westerners have expanded the boundaries of the political and emerged as a harbinger of America's electoral future. Representing a wide range of specialties-popular culture, business history, the environment, ethnic history, agriculture, and more-these authors portray a politically heterogeneous region and show how its multiple traditions have strongly shaped the nation's body politic. Viewing politics as more than cyclical electioneering, they draw on historical evidence to portray westerners imaginatively rethinking democratic practice and constantly forging new political publics. These twelve essays move western political history beyond the usual discussions of elections and parties and the standard issues of water, progressivism, and states' rights. Some explore claims to western authenticity among those associated with western conservatism-not just regional heroes like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, but farmers and evangelicals as well. Others examine the transformation of the West's minority communities to reveal a liberalism that celebrates diversity and articulates claims for social justice. The final chapters reveal the complexity of contemporary western political culture, challenging longstanding assumptions about such notions as space, nature, and the liberal-conservative divide. Here then is the paradox of western politics in all its enigmatic glory, with frontier individualism going head-to-head with multiethnic diversity in debates over divergent views of "western authenticity," and wild cards put into play by counterculturists, cyber-libertarians, fiscally conservative gun-toting Democrats, and environmentalists. The Political Culture of the New West shows how westerners have expressed themselves within a complex, often contradictory, and constantly changing political culture-and helps explain why no electoral outcome in this part of America can be predicted for certain.
Download or read book The Cowboy President written by Michael F. Blake and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cowboy President: How the American West Transformed Theodore Roosevelt details how his time spent in the Western Dakota Territory helped him recover from an overwhelming personal loss, but more importantly, how it transformed him into the man etched onto Mount Rushmore, a man who is still rated as one of the top five Presidents in American history. Unlike other Roosevelt biographies, The Cowboy President details how the land, the people and the Western code of honor had an enormous impact on Theodore and how this experience influenced him in his later years.
