American Legislative Leaders in the West, 1911-1994

by Charles F. Ritter, James Roger Sharp, Nancy Weatherly Sharp, Jon L. Wakelyn

Overview

The first of four volumes comprising a biographical dictionary of state house speakers from 1911 to 1994, this book covers speakers from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Entries provide basic biographical and career information on more than 400 speakers. The book opens with an insightful analytical introduction and includes valuable statistical appendixes based on an exhaustive database.

Complementing Charles R. Ritter and Jon L. Wakelyn's book American Legislative Leaders, 1850-1910 (1989), this book covers those who have served as state speakers in the West since 1910. Forthcoming volumes will cover state house speakers in the South, the Midwest, and the Northeast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313302121
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/23/1997
Series:	Contributions in American History
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

NANCY WEATHERLY SHARP is a member of the faculty and Assistant Dean at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University. She is the author/editor of Communications Research: The Challenge of the Information Age (1988).

JAMES ROGER SHARP is Professor of History and former department chair at Syracuse University. He is the author of American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (1993) and The Jacksonians versus the Banks: Politics in the States after the Panic of 1837 (1970).

Gina Petonito

Kevin G. Atwater

Charles F. Ritter

Jon L. Wakelyn

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Biographical Dictionary
Appendix 1: Political Party and Home County
Appendix 2: Years in Speakership and House
Appendix 3: Legislative Pathways
Appendix 4: Sex, Race, Birth, and Death
Appendix 5: Education
Appendix 6: Religious, Military, and Marital Background
Appendix 7: Occupations
Appendix 8: Voluntary Organizations
Appendix 9: Public Offices Before Speakership
Appendix 10: Public Offices After Speakership
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This is the initial offering by the Sharps (Syracuse U.)<-->along with 45 contributors<-->of a planned four-volume biographical dictionary of 1,410 US state house speakers by geographic region, 1911-94. Tables graphically portray regional and national patterns in party popularity and demographics through the decades. While the total number of women speakers rose from none in the period 1911-1932 to seven in 1965-1990, there has been less than a three percent decrease in the white status quo over the years and the dominance of 40-49 year-olds has remained stable. Oregon's Vera Katz is cited as one of the most successful women legislative leaders, despite initial doubts that: "... a woman was tough enough to be speaker." Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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