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• Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: "Men of Constructive Minds and Patriotic Motives"
• 1. "We Can Do No Worse"
• 2. "Conservative Progressive Constructive Legislation"
• 3. "Sired by the Devil and Born in Hell"
• 4. "Communism with a Haircut and a Shave"
• 5. "My Very Old and Close Friend"
• 6. "A Closer Connection with Our Federal Government" Conclusion: "The Forgotten Man" Notes Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Has Texas always been one of the United States' most conservative states? The answer might surprise you. Bootstrap Liberalism offers a glimpse into the world of Depression-era Texas politics, revealing a partisan culture that was often far more ideologically nuanced and complex than meets the eye. The Lone Star State is often viewed as a bastion of conservative politics and rugged "bootstrap" individualism, but that narrative overlooks the fact that FDR's New Deal was quite popular in Texas, much more so than previous histories of the era have suggested. While it is true that many Texas Democrats remained staunchly conservative during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, and it is also true that many of these conservatives formed the basis of an established majority that would grow stronger in the decades that followed, it is simultaneously true that ordinary voters-and a good many politicians-embraced New Deal policies, federal experimentation, and direct economic aid, and often did so enthusiastically as liberal Texas Democrats rode FDR's coattails to electoral success. Texas political leaders recognized the popularity of the New Deal and identified themselves with FDR for their own political advantage. Using original resources mined from six research archives, Bootstrap Liberalism explores campaign strategies and policy debates as they unfolded at the local, state, and national levels throughout the Great Depression and World War II eras, revealing a consistent brand of pro-New Deal messaging that won favor with voters across the state. Most Texas Democrats did not apologize for supporting FDR. Rather, they celebrated him and often marketed themselves as New Deal Democrats. Voters endorsed that strategy by electing liberals throughout the 1930s and early 1940s.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: Family biography as regional history
• Ascension. Becoming the Bankheads of Alabama ; A slaveholder's son in the postwar South, 1865-1885 ; "He was a getter, and he got" : the making of a New South congressman ; Establishing the new order ; Political challenges, 1904-1907 ; Roads and redemption ; Party men, city women
• Succession. New directions ; Senator from Alabama ; Burning bridges, taking chances ; Mr. Speaker ; "A good soldier in politics" : the last campaign ; At the crossroads

The sweeping story of an ambitious and once-powerful southern family. From Reconstruction through the end of World War II, the Bankheads served as the principal architects of the political, economic, and cultural framework of Alabama and the greater South. As a family, they were instrumental in fashioning the New South and the twentieth century American political economy, but now the Bankhead name is largely associated only with place names. Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama is a deeply researched epic family biography that reflects the complicated and evolving world inhabited by three generations of the extremely accomplished-if problematic-Bankhead family of northwest Alabama. Kari Frederickson's expertly crafted account traces the careers of five members of the family-John Hollis Bankhead; his sons, John Hollis Bankhead Jr. and William Brockman Bankhead; his daughter, Marie Bankhead Owen; and his granddaughter, Tallulah Brockman Bankhead. A Confederate veteran and son of a slaveholder, John Hollis Bankhead held political office almost continuously from 1865 until his death in 1920, first in state-level positions and ultimately in Congress-in the House then in the Senate-for thirty-three years. Two of his three sons, John Jr. and William, followed in their father's political footsteps. John Jr., a successful corporate attorney, was elected to the state legislature and then to the US Senate in 1930; William was elected to the House of Representatives in 1916 and chosen Speaker of the House in 1936. Together, father and sons played key roles in crafting and maintaining a conservative political culture, legal code, and economic system that facilitated economic opportunities for cotton farmers, coal barons, and emerging industries in Alabama and across the South while perpetuating White supremacy. Daughter Marie Bankhead Owen extended the family's cultural power during her thirty-five-year tenure as director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. From this position and through her work with groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy, she embraced and disseminated a historical narrative steeped in Lost Cause mythology that validated the power and privilege of White elites and naturalized the second-class status of African Americans. William's daughter, actress Tallulah Bankhead, benefited from her family's rich political bloodlines and in turn lent them a touch of glamour and made the Bankheads modern. Frederickson's meticulously researched examination of this once-powerful but now largely forgotten southern family is a sweeping and complex story of the region and its relationship with the wider world over the course of eight decades, from the wreckage of the Civil War to the dawn of the nuclear age.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface Western Kentucky The New Deal and Western Kentucky From the Ohio River Great Flood to the Atomic Age Happy Days and the Last Hurrah of State Democratic Party Factionalism Democratic Resurgence to the Collapse of the Gibraltar of Kentucky Democracy.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This in-depth study offers a new examination of a region that is often overlooked in political histories of the Bluegrass State. George G. Humphreys traces the arc of politics in western Kentucky from avid support of the Democratic Party to its present-day Republican identity. He demonstrates that, despite its relative geographic isolation, the counties west of the eastern boundary of Breckinridge County down to the Tennessee state line played significant roles in state and national politics during the New Deal and postwar eras. Drawing on extensive archival research and oral history interviews, Humphreys explores the area's political transformation from a solid Democratic voting block to a conservative stronghold by examining how developments such as advances in agriculture, the diversification of the economy, and the Civil Rights Movement affected the region. Addressing notable deficiencies in the existing literature, this impressively researched study will leave readers with a deeper understanding of post-1945 Kentucky politics.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Antebellum and Wartime Fourths of July
• Contesting the Southern Fourth of July
• Humbug or Opportunity: Debating the Centennial
• The Centennial and the Politics of Representation
• White Southerners and African Americans at the 1876 Centennial
• July Fourth 1876 in the South

In Contesting Commemoration: The 1876 Centennial, Independence Day, and the Reconstruction-Era South, Jack Noe examines identity and nationalism in the post-Civil War South through the lens of commemorative activity, namely Independence Day celebrations and the Centennial of 1876. Both events presented opportunities for whites, Blacks, northerners, and southerners to reflect on their identity as Americans. The often colorful and engaging discourse surrounding these observances provides a fascinating portrait of this fractured moment in the development of American nationalism.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The Early Lives of Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease, 1812-1837
• Establishing a Law Practice and Serving in the Legislature, 1837-1853
• The Travels and Early Married Life of Lucadia Niles Pease, 1837-1853
• Governor of Texas, First Term, 1853-1855
• Governor of Texas, Second Term, First Year, 1855-1856
• Governor of Texas, Second Term, Second Year, 1856-1857
• The Pease Family in Secessionist Texas, 1857-1865
• Return to Leadership in Post-War Texas, 1865-1867
• Governing Reconstruction Texas, 1868-1869
• Life after Reconstruction, 1869-1905

Identified with Texas is the first published biography of Texas Governor Elisha Marshall Pease (1812-1883), presented by historian Elizabeth Whitlow as a dual biography of Pease and his wife, Lucadia Niles Pease (1813-1905). Pease volunteered to fight in the first battle of the Revolution at Gonzales, and he served with the Texan Army at the Siege of Bexar. Pease served in the first three state legislatures after Texas joined the Union in 1845, was elected governor in 1853 and re-elected in 1855, and returned to the governorship as an interim appointee from 1867 to 1869 during Reconstruction. His achievements in all these positions were substantial. Lucadia Niles Pease was known as the Governor's "Lady." Moreover, her early, independent travel and her stated position as a "woman's rights woman" in the 1850s, as well as her support for sending a daughter away to college in the 1870s to earn a degree, all serve as markers of her intelligence and the strength of her convictions. To tell their story, Whitlow mined thousands of letters and papers saved by the Pease family and housed in the Austin History Center of the Austin Public Library, as well as in the Governor's Papers at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

"Depicted as a graphic history and informed by newly discovered primary sources and years of archival research, Monumental resurrects, in vivid detail, Louisiana and New Orleans after the Civil War, and an iconic American life that never should have been forgotten. The graphic history is supplemented with personal and historiographical essays as well as a map, timeline, and endnotes that explore the riveting scenes in even greater depth. Monumental is a story of determination, scandal, betrayal-and how one man's principled fight for equality and justice may have cost him everything"-- Provided by publisher

Recounts the volatile period following the end of the Civil War, when Southern whites were forced to concede equal rights to former slaves, ushering in a new and ruthless brand of politics. Nowhere was this more evident than in Alabama, where the Republican Party reestablished itself quickly and powerfully with the participation of a newly freed constituency, firmly aligned against the Democratic Party that had long dictated the governance of the state.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• An Angel of God Come Down to Lead the Host of Freedom
• One Plane of Ashes and Blackened Chimneys
• Looking Out from among the Ghastly Corpses
• Why Can't We Have a Soldier's Pay?
• I Now Recommend His Being Allowed to Serve as a Commissioned Officer
• Crowned with Laurels
• This Is a White Man's Government
• The Political Boss of Williamsburg County
• A Campaign of Intimidation and Terror
• What a Mockery of Justice Is This?
• A Proper Denouement to an Extraordinary Man.

Stephen Atkins Swails is a forgotten American hero. A free Black in the North before the Civil War began, Swails exhibited such exemplary service in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry that he became the first African American commissioned as a combat officer in the United States military. After the war, Swails remained in South Carolina, where he held important positions in the Freedmen's Bureau, helped draft a progressive state constitution, served in the state senate, and secured legislation benefiting newly liberated Black citizens. Swails remained active in South Carolina politics after Reconstruction until violent Redeemers drove him from the state. After Swails died in 1900, state and local leaders erased him from the historical narrative. Gordon C. Rhea's biography, one of only a handful for any of the nearly 200,000 African Americans who fought in the Civil War or figured prominently in Reconstruction, restores Swails's remarkable legacy. Swails's life story is a saga of an indomitable human being who confronted deep-seated racial prejudice in various institutions but nevertheless reached significant milestones in the fight for racial equality, especially within the military. His is an inspiring story that is especially timely today.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Texas Unionists and the National Union League, 1863-1967
• Black Texans
• The League Comes to Texas
• The League and Black Agency
• Black Agency and Democratic Violence, 1868
• The League and George Ruby, Conventions, and the Direction of Texas Republicanism, 1868-1969
• The League and the Election of 1869
• Reorganization and Restructuring: James P. Newcomb and the League
• Internal Divisions and the Election of 1871
• The Demise of the League and its Legacy

The Republican Union League of America played a major role in the Southern Reconstruction that followed the American Civil War. A secret organization introduced into Texas in 1867 to mobilize newly enfranchised black voters, it was the first political body that attempted to secure power by forming a biracial coalition. Originally intended by white Unionists simply to marshal black voters to their support, it evolved into an organization that allowed blacks to pursue their own political goals. It was abandoned by the state's Republican Party following the 1871 state elections.From the beginning the use of the league by the Republican party proved controversial. While its opponents charged that its white leadership simply manipulated ignorant blacks to achieve power for themselves, ultimately encouraging racial conflict, the League not only educated blacks in their new political rights but also protected them in the exercise of those rights. It gave blacks a voice in supporting the legislative program of Gov. Edmund J. Davis, helping him to push through laws aimed at the maintenance of law and order, securing basic civil rights for blacks, and the creation of public schools. Ultimately, its success and its secrecy provoked hostile attacks from political opponents, leading the party to stop using it. Nonetheless, the Union League created a legacy of black activism that lasted throughout the nineteenth century and pushed Texas toward a remarkably different world from the segregated and racist one that developed after the league disappeared.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Race and democracy in the long era of Reconstruction
• Jim Crow's regime
• The forgotten Fifties
• Jim Crow's demise
• Reincarnation
• Conclusion: Looking backward to the future

America is at war with itself over the right to vote, or, more precisely, over the question of who gets to exercise that right and under what circumstances. Conservatives speak in ominous tones of voter fraud so widespread that it threatens public trust in elected government. Progressives counter that fraud is rare and that calls for reforms such as voter ID are part of a campaign to shrink the electorate and exclude some citizens from the political life of the nation. North Carolina is a battleground for this debate, and its history can help us understand why--a century and a half after ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment--we remain a nation divided over the right to vote. In Fragile Democracy, James L. Leloudis and Robert R. Korstad tell the story of race and voting rights, from the end of the Civil War until the present day. They show that battles over the franchise have played out through cycles of emancipatory politics and conservative retrenchment. When race has been used as an instrument of exclusion from political life, the result has been a society in which vast numbers of Americans are denied the elements of meaningful freedom: a good job, a good education, good health, and a good home. That history points to the need for a bold new vision of what democracy looks like.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)