Oklahoma Books

Much has been written on Oklahoma's more prominent early politicians. However, in most of the literature on Oklahoma history, women's political involvement has been largely overlooked. Women of the past were as much a part of Oklahoma's political scene as they are today. In this new study, Suzanne Schrems explores the roots of women's involvement in politics and political activism. In hopes of understanding what called these women to action, she examines their political philosophies...The book is well researched and written. It is a great addition to the growing literature on Women's history. Reviewed by Stacy Reaves, Tulsa Community College, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Who's Rocking The Cradle? Women Pioneers of Oklahoma Politics from Socialism to the KKK, 1900-1930 is a close examination of women's trailblazing invovlement in the Oklahoma political scene. Studying women who worked for diametic extremes of right and left, as well as those who took a more middle-of-the-road approach, the changes that suffrage brought, and featuring special focus on Congresswoman Alice Robertson of Oklahoma, Who's Rocking The Cradle? is a superbly researched, in-depth assemblage of information on women's role in everything from the socialist party to the Women's Christian Temperance Union in Indian Territory to the KKK. A profoundly welcome and much-needed contribution to Oklahoma state history and reference shelves.

If you like to read about the old west, this is the book. Written using old newspapers and police records of the old cowtowns you can relive the time of the 1880's and what it was like.

This is without a doubt one of my favourite books on the West. It contains biographies of 57 Kansas cowtown personalities, ranging in length from half a page to 130-odd pages (about Bat Masterson). Since the authors quote generously from contemporary newspapers and letters and keep their own text to a minimum this is as close as you will ever get to the truth about these cowtown characters. It is richly illustrated, including a facsimile of Bat Masterson's only effort as a newspaper publisher. Highly recommended. (This review refers to the original edition from 1963.)

Old West showman William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody was more than just a notorious outlaw: he was a land developer, town promoter, and showman. WILLIAM F. CODY'S WYOMING EMPIRE: THE BUFFALO BILL NOBODY KNOWS is a blend of history and biography especially suitable for college-level American history collections focusing on frontier times: it surveys his life, offers over twenty photos, and considers the reality behind the character. An engrossing, different portrait stands out from the crowd of books on Cody's life and career.

Buffalo Bill Cody was America's first celebrity and probably the best advertised name in the world at the time his Wild West Show took to feeding Americans a comforting myth about its conquest of the west. He was a double impostor who aspired to turn his iconic image as an heroic frontiersman into status as a capitalist of consequence.

The book deals with Cody's concerted but ineffectual quest to develop his own corner of Wyoming. Although he was a big name and tireless promoter, his enterprises were doomed by his lack of real business skill or follow-through, exacerbated by his rock star travel schedule and his choice of the arid Big Horn Basin as the place he would will his empire into being.

Cody was not a con artist so much as a show business artist, with emphasis on the show, not the business. Though his show made him rich enough to put him with East Coast aristocrats, Cody sought to earn their company on a higher footing. In this respect, he prefigured today's calculating and self-inflating celebrities, particularly Schwarzenegger the body builder and Trump the bankrupt developer.

In later years, Cody's influence grew weaker as the government bureaus he sought to exploit moved from political patronage to professional management, and real businessmen backed by serious capital came in with the railroads.

Bonner is a fine writer, but his subject is probably too narrow for readers without a stake in the west or an interest in western history. He purposely avoids the well-documented Wild West side of Cody to tell a less celebrated tale of attempts to settle public lands, and in particular, the importance of bringing water into the region.

Cody's story ends with corporate interests and eastern capital opening much of the west and sweeping aside, if need be, the rugged individualists who are enshrined in western mythology -- whether they were dry dirt farmers or the most famous man in the world.

Richard Clokey has turned out a well deserved and most admirable biography of early nineteenth century entrepreneur William Ashley. Those readers well versed in the fur trade era are no doubt familiar with the name Ashley. What many may not be aware of is his life before and after these adventurous years in the mountains. Clokey does delve into these fur trade years of the 1820's extremely well, giving Ashley credit for initiating the annual rendezvous by bringing the goods and commodities to the mountains in exchange for the furs; paving the way for the future Overland and Oregon Trails; exploring the Green River, etc., but he also brings to light the pre and post years of this time period. Before the fur trade years, Ashley was involved in lead mining, gunpowder production, land speculation, was the leader a voluntary ranger militia to thwart Indian hostilities and had a failed attempt at running for Missouri Governor. Many of these endeavors had their ups and downs and would discourage most people from pursuing any further attempts at business. The fur trade years went quite well, Ashley sold the business but remained the agent, banker and financier for the company to market the furs. Later he went full throttle into Missouri politics, being elected for three terms into the House of Representatives. Although a controversial figure while a politician (since he claimed himself an independent Jacksonian), he nevertheless had a complete career in this profession. An insightful book about a special pioneer of the early 1800's.

Without a doubt, William H. Ashley occupies a major position of importance regarding the development of the West. As the creator of the rendezvous system for resupplying his trappers beyond the Rockies, Ashley deserves a seat of high honor at the historical table. But he was also a tireless advocate for the creation of a mounted military force on the Plains and an important Jacksonian congressman in Washington. Richard Clokey, with style and thorough research, presents an admirable account of Ashley's life and exploits.

William Ashley was born in Virginia and came to Missouri after the Louisiana Purchase. He worked in the mines around Ste. Genevieve and later fought in the War of 1812, rising to the rank of Brigadier General in the state militia after the war. (He was referred to as General Ashley for the rest of his life.) Along with Andrew Henry he managed the first expedition up the Missouri River for fur-gathering purposes in 1822, reaching the Yellowstone where they built a fort. The next year they were attacked by the Arikaras on the Missouri, and Ashley sent trapping parties on foot across the Plains to the mountains. The idea that trappers would form small detachments to work the beaver streams, thus increasing mobility and lessening the prospects of encountering hostile Indians, was the brainchild of Ashley's at this time.

In the winter of 1824, Ashley took a packtrain from St. Louis to Green River, venturing down that perilous waterway (thus becoming the first white man on record to do so), before returning to Henry's Fork on the Green where he agreed to meet the rest of his men (July 1, 1825) - the first official rendezvous in the mountains. The next year he did it all over again, attending the rendezvous in Cache Valley. There he sold his fur business to Jedediah Smith & company, and returned to St. Louis, a wealthy man. Politics became his chief concern after that, failing to win the governorship but serving three terms in Congress in Washington. He died in 1838 in St. Louis and was buried near Boonville, MO, on a high bluff overlooking the river. A large monument marks the spot.

Clokey's book is comprehensive and focuses heavily on Ashley's business dealings and political career. My favorite chapters are the ones where Ashley went to the mountains in 1825-26. The hardships the men encountered and the daring they employed (especially in going down the Green) are amazing to read about and imagine. The book is the definitive account of Ashley's life and a wonderful book to read. Old West history aficionados will find this book a must-read title.

Don't be alarmed by the title. This is not a hysterical, feminist book. Bruhns and Stothert simply fill in the blanks in history by revealing why these omissions were made in the first place and why engendering history is important. The theoretical aspects of the book are accompanied by many (although more would be better) illustrations and detailed analysis of artifacts.

The book has a great bibliography section which makes it a great resource for additional research in the field. Besides being valuable as a college textbook, it would be a great book to read if you wish to update your knowledge about gender roles in the Americas.

Women in Ancient America represents the first comprehensive coverage of women in precolumbian American cultures, describing their roles and relationships and utilizing key archaeological works to revamp traditional historical perspectives about the times. From the origins of agriculture to the development of social and religious systems, this provides many important, unique insights.

It is hard enough to try to piece together any of human prehistory but women suffer the usual extra fate of being particularly invisible or being always relegated to domestic and insignificant roles. Here, Margaret Ehrenberg attempts to make women visible without succumbing to false beliefs in matriarchies and female dominance. This is only a fairly brief look at possibilities over the immense timespan from the paleolithic to the bronze and iron ages but it is an interesting contribution. The changing role of women in economic production and its relation to women's status is a main theme but is not a straightforward connection. As Ehrenberg says, much new information from improved investigative technology (such as sexing of skeletons) and new thinking is needed.

Whatever data we do have, though, certainly needs to be treated with caution as our views are naturally colored by our own cultures, experiences and expectations. The author provides a number of examples of archeological finds and some alternative interpretations and insights plus relevant information from present-day hunter-gatherers. A very good read.

As an anthropology major, I really loved this book. It was interesting and easy to read, as well as written by an archaeologist who presented an unbiased report of Women in Prehistory. I would definitely buy this book for people interested in Pre-History or Women's history.

This collated and edited collection focusing on Oklahoma is part of the much larger (massive) collection of works produced by the WPA (Works Project Administration) which was part of Roosevelt's Federal Writers Project. Spanning the country to interview ex-enslaved African Americans before that entire generation died, the combined volumes speak volumes about the horrid conditions--provided by first-hand, eye-witnesses. This current volume focuses, as the title notes, on one such state--Oklahoma. For the complete works, the Library of Congress online is the best source.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

From 19337-39 the Works Project Administration, through the Oklahoma Federal Writers Project, interviewed former slaves living in Oklahoma. For various reasons the slave narratives were never published and languished in boxes in Oklahoma and Washington, DC.
In 1990 they came to the attention of the editors of this volume annd after extensive work were published in 1996. The book contains some one hundred thirty narratives and is a rich history of not only Oklahoma but other southern states as well as the slavery practices of the Five Civilized Tribes.
It is an indispensable resource for historians as well as readers interested in slavery, Oklahoma's Five Tribes, African Americans, and the history of race relations in Oklahoma and the Southwest. Detailed editorial notes and a superb index are included.

Contrary to popular belief, Oklahoma's worst outlaws and bad men lived in the 19th century before Oklahoma was even a state. Lawless men frequented the area, sometimes using it as a hideout, sometimes just drifting through before it was formalized into what was called Indian Territory.

Not since Ken Butler has there been an Oklahoma historian that has delved deeper into the mystique surrounding the Oklahoma territories. It would take an attorney, which Mr. Yadon is, to penetrate the veil of the dime store novels that were written about the actual fantastic goings-on that happened in the territory that was to become Oklahoma and a newspaperman, which Mr. Anderson has been, to come up with an exceptionally readable series of profiles of people that no Chamber of Commerce would ever want to admit had graced what would become the state of Oklahoma.

Starting with the first chapter about a man who was indeed, "a man too bad for Hollywood," and continuing with sometimes whimsical looks at the best and the worst of the people who populated Indian Territory in the years 1839-1939. This book is well documented and annotated and is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the wild and woolly western years.

One of the more interesting books on the 101 Ranch. Originally written at a time when many of the people involved with the 101 were still alive to give valuable first hand information. For the most part a very easy read and a revealing look at the building of the vast 110,000 acre empire. There are some areas where the story bogs down with financial figures and crop output etc. However it is an amazing story that even today seems unreal. The fact that such names as Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Buffalo Bill and many more were associated with the 101 Wild West Show makes for very interesting reading in addition to the many facets surrounding life at the "White House" and the three Miller brothers themselves.

A self-published tribute to the legendary 101 Ranch in Oklahoma, commemorating a celebration held over Labor Day Weekend in 1978 and 1979. Recounts the history and present (dismal) status of the ranch, which is seminal in the history of rodeo. The Ranch was among the first to employ women, Mexicans and Black Americans. Among the notables were Bill Pickett and George Hooker, who were Black cowboys; an all around cowgirl, Lucille Mulhall; Joe Borrero, a Mexican trick roper and a variety of Native Americans. It was once the biggest working rodeo ranch in America, covering 101,000 acres, spanning four counties including the Ponca Indian Reservation in Oklahoma.