The Great Oklahoma Swindle: Race, Religion, and Lies in America's Weirdest StateThis unflinching look at Oklahoma's singular past helpfully fills in lesser-known aspects of the historical record.--Publishers Weekly An Oklahoma Bestseller Look down as you buzz across America, and Oklahoma looks like another "flyover state." A closer inspection, however, reveals one of the most tragic, fascinating, and unpredictable places in the United States. Over the span of a century, Oklahoma gave birth to movements for an African American homeland, a vibrant Socialist Party, armed rebellions of radical farmers, and an insurrection by a man called Crazy Snake. In the same era, the state saw numerous oil booms, one of which transformed the small town of Tulsa into the "oil capital of the world." Add to the chaos one of the nation's worst episodes of racial violence, a statewide takeover by the Ku Klux Klan, and the rise of a paranoid far-right agenda by a fundamentalist preacher named Billy James Hargis and you have the recipe for America's most paradoxical state. Far from being a placid place in the heart of Flyover Country, Oklahoma has been a laboratory for all kinds of social, political, and artistic movements, producing a singular list of weirdos, geniuses, and villains. Interweaving memoir, social commentary, and sometimes surprising research around the themes of race, religion, and politics, Cobb presents an insightful portrait that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about the American Heartland.
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Contents
Youre Not Doing Fine Oklahoma | |
The Road to Hell in Indian Territory | |
Where the Hell Is Oklahoma Anyway? | |
The Long Goodbye to Oklahomas SmallTown Jews | |
Okies in the Promised Land | |
Backward Christian Soldier | |
Keeping Oklahoma Weird | |
Cursed? | |
The Fire That Time | |
Uncommon Commons | |
Epilogue | |
Notes | |