The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 85, July 1981 - April, 1982 Page: 470
497 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
their own saga. This you will understand long before you finish the
book" (p. xiv). I agree.
College of Santa Fe WALTER J. DONLON
Progressive Oklahoma: The Making of a New Kind of State. By Dan-
ney Goble. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980. Pp.
xi + 276. Preface, introduction, illustrations, appendices, bibliog-
raphy, index. $14.95.)
Danney Goble's Progressive Oklahoma: The Making of a New Kind
of State, is a solid monograph on a subject that is important to the
proper understanding of Oklahoma history. Moreover, it is a subject
that is of interest to those who want to know more about the political
and social origins of what has traditionally been called progressivism.
Oklahoma came into the union in 1907 in the middle of the Progres-
sive Era. Its constitution reflected the hopes and aspirations of those
reformers who perceived themselves to be part of that movement.
Oklahoma's heritage is of special importance because it had its origins
in the drought that began on the plains of North America in 1887.
The scope of Goble's book comprises the twenty years that followed.
It is Professor Goble's purpose to show how the Oklahoma Constitu-
tion, ratified in 1907 and considered by many to be a highwater mark
of progressivism, evolved through the efforts of commercial farmers
and trade unionists to organize and control the market machinery in
order to guarantee the continuation of a free-enterprise system in the
face of the growing power of modern corporations.
The story of those twenty years unfolds nicely through the 227 pages
of narrative, with just enough digression to add interest and offer
respite from the more tedious aspects of political infighting. The role
of the Indian peoples who had inhabited Oklahoma, or at least the
part of Oklahoma known as Indian Territory, is woven into the narra-
tive, as is the special role of blacks and black leaders in the movement
toward statehood. Progressive politics, as the Populist politics before
it, was essentially consensus politics, and Goble pays special attention
to the way various interest groups were forged into a unified political
movement by the Democratic party and how that consensus swept the
Democrats to power almost overnight. While focusing on the various
groups that constituted the Progressive movement in Oklahoma, Goble
devotes adequate space to the various colorful individuals who were
part of the story as well.470
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 85, July 1981 - April, 1982, periodical, 1981/1982; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101208/m1/528/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.