Oklahoma Politics: A History

"Oklahoma Politics might well be the best general history of a Western state." Western Historical Quarterly "Thoroughly researched and well written, this book is a solid study of the evolution of Oklahoma's political system." Southwestern Historical Quarterly Oklahoma Politics offers a thorough and accurate history of the state's government. Beginning with the elections of the territorial era, the authors progress through the early 1980s, covering every major election in the state's history and including biographical sketches of promintent political figures, discussion of controversies in the statehouse, and explanation of the state's role in national affairs. Although comprehensive in scope, Oklahoma Politics is more than a compendium of political data. The authors examine the history of the commonwealth as something of a model for understanding the evolution of state politics in general during the twentieth century. Born during the Progressive Era, the state has been host to nearly every major force in American state politics since: grassroots agrarian radicalism, a potent Ku Klux Klan, the turmoil of the Great Depression, the post-World War II revolution in the federal-state relationship, and the emergence of modern Republican conservatism, all making Oklahoma a laboratory of political change. Incorporating many findings of political scientists, the authors develop a new perspective from which to view Oklahoma's political history, but without losing the color and excitement of state politics. The result is a book that speaks to those Oklahomans-indeed, those Americans-who seek to understand how state politics works or, on occasion, why it does not. James R. Scales (1919-1996) a distinguished scholar and native Oklahoman, was president of Wake Forest University from 1968 to 1983. Danney Goble (1946-2007) was Professor of Letters at the University of Oklahoma and the award-winning author or coauthor of eight books about Oklahoma and Oklahomans.