Download or read book Alfalfa Bill Murray written by Keith L. Bryant and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2016-02-08 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William H. (Alfalfa Bill) Murray is the most important figure in the political history of Oklahoma. No other individual contributed so greatly to the formation of its political institutions—and there was never a more colorful or controversial character on the state’s political scene. Flamboyant, unpredictable, and stubborn, Alfalfa Bill became a legend. President of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, speaker of the first House of Representatives, two-term congressman, and governor of Oklahoma, the Texas-born Murray made an indelible mark on his adopted state. But he also made enemies. During the struggle for statehood he waged a hard battle over the constitution, taking on President Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of War William Howard Taft. As Oklahoma governor, Murray challenged the oil industry, newspaper interests, and the state of Texas. To enforce his programs, he relied on the National Guard. While governor, Murray called out the guard forty-seven times for duties ranging from policing ticket sales at University of Oklahoma football games, to patrolling oil fields, to guarding the Red River Bridge during the infamous Bridge War with Texas. In 1932 he ran for the Democratic nomination for president, and his fame spread across the nation. When candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt offered a program for national recovery, Murray countered with “Bread, Butter, Bacon, and Beans.” In describing Murray’s frustrated efforts to preserve the agricultural American of the nineteenth century, Bryant has written a perceptive biography presenting the first clearly defined portrait of this determined but inflexible man.
Download or read book Alfalfa Bill written by Robert L. Dorman and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this masterful biography, Robert L. Dorman traces the career of William H. “Alfalfa Bill” Murray from his hardscrabble childhood in post–Civil War Texas to his remarkable ascendancy as a nationally known political figure in the mid-twentieth century. The first comprehensive portrait of Murray to be published in fifty years, Alfalfa Bill is both the exploration of a larger-than-life personality and an illuminating account of the birth of political conservatism in Oklahoma. As Dorman reveals, no political label readily fit Murray. The core conservatism of his Texas years was caught up in the ferment of three major periods of American reform—the Populist uprising, the Progressive Era, and the New Deal. Over his long career, Murray strongly advocated for states’ rights, limited government, and strict constitutionalism, yet he was also a consistent foe of corporations and concentrated wealth. The society he sought was small-scale, decentralized, agrarian—and racially segregated. Although he claimed to represent high principles, Murray as a politician was an opportunist, loved a good fight, had a flair for the theatrical, and hungered for power. Dorman depicts Murray from his days as a political operative in the Chickasaw Nation to his leadership of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, and from the Speaker’s chair of the Oklahoma legislature to the halls of Congress. The book follows Murray’s quixotic attempt to found an agricultural colony in Bolivia, and chronicles his amazing Oklahoma comeback in the 1930 gubernatorial election. The final chapters detail Murray’s legendary term as state governor, his failed candidacy for president, and his emergence as a fierce critic of New Deal liberalism and racial desegregation. Unlike earlier biographies of Murray, Alfalfa Bill brings issues of race, class, and gender to the forefront, often in surprising ways. On the surface, the Murray saga was an American success story, yet his rise came at a price for Murray himself, his family, and the people of the state he helped to create. An indelible portrait emerges of an ambitious, domineering, relentless, and unapologetically racist figure whose tarnished legacy seems painfully relevant in America’s current political climate.
Download or read book Alfalfa Bill written by Gordon Hines and published by . This book was released on 1932 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography of William Henry (Alfalfa Bill) Murray.
Download or read book Alfalfa Bill Murray written by Keith L. Bryant and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2016-02-08 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William H. (Alfalfa Bill) Murray is the most important figure in the political history of Oklahoma. No other individual contributed so greatly to the formation of its political institutions—and there was never a more colorful or controversial character on the state’s political scene. Flamboyant, unpredictable, and stubborn, Alfalfa Bill became a legend. President of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, speaker of the first House of Representatives, two-term congressman, and governor of Oklahoma, the Texas-born Murray made an indelible mark on his adopted state. But he also made enemies. During the struggle for statehood he waged a hard battle over the constitution, taking on President Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of War William Howard Taft. As Oklahoma governor, Murray challenged the oil industry, newspaper interests, and the state of Texas. To enforce his programs, he relied on the National Guard. While governor, Murray called out the guard forty-seven times for duties ranging from policing ticket sales at University of Oklahoma football games, to patrolling oil fields, to guarding the Red River Bridge during the infamous Bridge War with Texas. In 1932 he ran for the Democratic nomination for president, and his fame spread across the nation. When candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt offered a program for national recovery, Murray countered with “Bread, Butter, Bacon, and Beans.” In describing Murray’s frustrated efforts to preserve the agricultural American of the nineteenth century, Bryant has written a perceptive biography presenting the first clearly defined portrait of this determined but inflexible man.
Download or read book And Still the Waters Run written by Angie Debo and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic book that exposed the scandal of the dispossession of native land by American settlers And Still the Waters Run tells the tragic story of the liquidation of the independent Indian republics of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles, known as the Five Civilized Tribes. At the turn of the twentieth century, the tribes owned the eastern half of what is now Oklahoma, a territory immensely wealthy in farmland, forests, coal, and oil. Their political and economic status was guaranteed by the federal government—until American settlers arrived. Congress abrogated treaties that it had promised would last “as long as the waters run,” and within a generation, the tribes were systematically stripped of their holdings, and were rescued from starvation only through public charity. Called a “work of art” by writer Oliver La Farge, And Still the Waters Run was so controversial when it was first published that Angie Debo was banned from teaching in Oklahoma for many years. Now with an incisive foreword by Amanda Cobb-Greetham, here is the acclaimed book that first documented the scandalous founding of Oklahoma on native land.
Download or read book The Lost Soul of the American Presidency written by Stephen F. Knott and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American presidency is not what it once was. Nor, Stephen F. Knott contends, what it was meant to be. Taking on an issue as timely as Donald Trump’s latest tweet and old as the American republic, the distinguished presidential scholar documents the devolution of the American presidency from the neutral, unifying office envisioned by the framers of the Constitution into the demagogic, partisan entity of our day. The presidency of popular consent, or the majoritarian presidency that we have today, far predates its current incarnation. The executive office as James Madison, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton conceived it would be a source of national pride and unity, a check on the tyranny of the majority, and a neutral guarantor of the nation’s laws. The Lost Soul of the American Presidency shows how Thomas Jefferson’s “Revolution of 1800” remade the presidency, paving the way for Andrew Jackson to elevate “majority rule” into an unofficial constitutional principle—and contributing to the disenfranchisement, and worse, of African Americans and Native Americans. In Woodrow Wilson, Knott finds a worthy successor to Jefferson and Jackson. More than any of his predecessors, Wilson altered the nation’s expectations of what a president could be expected to achieve, putting in place the political machinery to support a “presidential government.” As difficult as it might be to recover the lost soul of the American presidency, Knott reminds us of presidents who resisted pandering to public opinion and appealed to our better angels—George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and William Howard Taft, among others—whose presidencies suggest an alternative and offer hope for the future of the nation’s highest office.
Download or read book Fire in Beulah written by Rilla Askew and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-12-31 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A haunting, engrossing portrait of two families – one white, one Black – whose lives are woven together and then shattered” (The Washington Post) by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Oil-boom opulence, fear, hate, and lynchings are the backdrop for this riveting novel about one of the worst incidents of violence in American history. Althea Whiteside, an oil-wildcatter’s high-strung white wife, and her enigmatic Black maid, Graceful, share a complex connection during the tense days of the Oklahoma oil rush. Their juxtaposing stories – and those of others close to them – unfold as tensions mount to a violent climax in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, during which whites burned the city’s prosperous Black neighborhood to the ground. The massacre becomes the crucible that melds and tests each of the character in this masterful exploration of the American race story and the ties that bind us irrevocably to one another.
Download or read book Alfalfa Bill written by Robert L. Dorman and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this masterful biography, Robert L. Dorman traces the career of William H. “Alfalfa Bill” Murray from his hardscrabble childhood in post–Civil War Texas to his remarkable ascendancy as a nationally known political figure in the mid-twentieth century. The first comprehensive portrait of Murray to be published in fifty years, Alfalfa Bill is both the exploration of a larger-than-life personality and an illuminating account of the birth of political conservatism in Oklahoma. As Dorman reveals, no political label readily fit Murray. The core conservatism of his Texas years was caught up in the ferment of three major periods of American reform—the Populist uprising, the Progressive Era, and the New Deal. Over his long career, Murray strongly advocated for states’ rights, limited government, and strict constitutionalism, yet he was also a consistent foe of corporations and concentrated wealth. The society he sought was small-scale, decentralized, agrarian—and racially segregated. Although he claimed to represent high principles, Murray as a politician was an opportunist, loved a good fight, had a flair for the theatrical, and hungered for power. Dorman depicts Murray from his days as a political operative in the Chickasaw Nation to his leadership of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, and from the Speaker’s chair of the Oklahoma legislature to the halls of Congress. The book follows Murray’s quixotic attempt to found an agricultural colony in Bolivia, and chronicles his amazing Oklahoma comeback in the 1930 gubernatorial election. The final chapters detail Murray’s legendary term as state governor, his failed candidacy for president, and his emergence as a fierce critic of New Deal liberalism and racial desegregation. Unlike earlier biographies of Murray, Alfalfa Bill brings issues of race, class, and gender to the forefront, often in surprising ways. On the surface, the Murray saga was an American success story, yet his rise came at a price for Murray himself, his family, and the people of the state he helped to create. An indelible portrait emerges of an ambitious, domineering, relentless, and unapologetically racist figure whose tarnished legacy seems painfully relevant in America’s current political climate.
Download or read book The Worst Hard Time written by Timothy Egan and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan’s National Book Award–winning story rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows. The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Timothy Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, he does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful reminder about the dangers of trifling with nature. This e-book includes a sample chapter of THE IMMORTAL IRISHMAN.
Download or read book Bad Times for Good Ol Boys written by Harry Holloway and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the time federal prosecutors announced an end to their investigation of Oklahoma local government in the early 1980s, more than 200 people had been convicted in 60 counties. Most were county commissioners who had been taking kickbacks paid by suppliers on orders for county road-building supplies.
Download or read book The Cowboy Hero written by William W. Savage and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes the modern myth of the cowboy as it appears in movies, advertising, the rodeo, and fiction, and gauges its effect on American thought
Download or read book Intermountain Alfalfa Management written by Steve B. Orloff and published by UCANR Publications. This book was released on 1997-06-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive guide for western alfalfa growers brings together the most current information and recommendations in nearly all areas of alfalfa management, including stand establishment, fertilization, irrigation, pest management, and harvesting
Download or read book The Oklahoma State Constitution written by Danny M. Adkison and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1907, William Jennings Bryan described the proposed constitution for Oklahoma as "The best constitution in the United States today." An enduring characteristic of Oklahoma's constitution has been its faith in direct democracy and its root in Progressive Era politics. The Oklahoma State Constitution traces the historical formation and constitutional development of the state of Oklahoma. In it, Danny Adkison and Lisa McNair Palmer provide article-by-article commentary and analysis on the intent, politics, social and economic pressures, and legal decisions that shaped and enhanced the Oklahoma constitution since it was adopted in 1907. This commentary provides a broad understanding of state constitutional law within the context of Oklahoma's constitutional evolution. A bibliographic essay and list of cases offer sources for further study. The second edition further discusses amendments to the state constitution that range from a state law legalizing medical marijuana (which passed) to amending the state's constitution to allow optometrists to operate in Wal-Mart stores (which did not pass). The book features new and updated citations of court decisions and Attorney General opinions on the interpretation of constitutional provisions with the latest cases available. The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the state's constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research. Under the expert editorship of Professor Lawrence Friedman of New England Law School, Boson, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents.
Download or read book Haunted Oklahoma City written by Jeff Provine and Tanya McCoy and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2016 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oklahoma City boasts a rich heritage of gumption and perseverance, but there are many tales only whispered from shadows. A spectral woman may be seen in the upper window of the Overholser Mansion, looking for her long-lost love. The spirit of one of Oklahoma's feistiest leaders is said to dwell in the Governor's Mansion, where he trips guests on the stairs. Perhaps still thirsty for the drink a fatal gunshot interrupted, the ghost of a cheating mobster rattles the glasses at Gabriella's off Route 66. Jeff Provine and Tanya McCoy uncover the curious and creepy tales of the Sooner State capital.
Download or read book National Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 1056 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The National Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 1166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The State of Sequoyah written by Donald L. Fixico and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2024-10-22 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few people today know that the forty-sixth state could have been Sequoyah, not Oklahoma. The Five Tribes of Indian Territory gathered in 1905 to form their own, Indian-led state. Leaders of the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Muscogees, and Seminoles drafted a constitution, which eligible voters then ratified. In the end, Congress denied their request, but the movement that fueled their efforts transcends that single defeat. Researched and interpreted by distinguished Native historian Donald L. Fixico, this book tells the remarkable story of how the state of Sequoyah movement unfolded and the extent to which it remains alive today. Fixico tells how the Five Nations, after removal to the west, negotiated treaties with the U.S. government and lobbied Congress to allow them to retain communal control of their lands as sovereign nations. In the wake of the Civil War, while a dozen bills in Congress proposed changing the status of Indian Territory, the Five Tribes sought strength in unity. The Boomer movement and seven land dispensations—beginning with the famous run of 1889—nevertheless eroded their borders and threatened their cultural and political autonomy. President Theodore Roosevelt ultimately declared his support for the merging of Indian Territory with Oklahoma Territory, paving the way for Oklahoma statehood in 1907—and shattering the state of Sequoyah dream. Yet the Five Tribes persevered. Fixico concludes his narrative by highlighting recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, most notably McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020), that have reaffirmed the sovereignty of Indian nations over their lands and people—a principal inherent in the Sequoyah movement. Did the story end in 1907? Could the Five Tribes revive their plan for separate statehood? Fixico leaves the reader to ponder this intriguing possibility.
