Great Plains Politics

<p>The Great Plains has long been home to unconventional and leading-edge politics from the fiery Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan to the country's first female U.S. representative and first female governor to the nation's only single-house state legislature. <em>Great Plains Politics</em> provides a lively tour of the Great Plains region through the civic and political contributions of its citizens demonstrating the importance of community in the region.</p><p><em>Great Plains Politics</em> profiles six men and women who had a profound impact on the civic and community life of the Great Plains: Wilma Mankiller the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and a political activist at both the local and the national levels; Virginia Smith an educator from Nebraska who served as a U.S. representative in Congress; Junius Groves an African American farmer and community builder from Kansas; George McGovern a South Dakota senator whose 1972 presidential campaign galvanized widespread grassroots support; Robert Dole a Kansas congressman and longtime senator as well as the Republican candidate for U.S. president in 1988; and Harriet Elizabeth Byrd the first African American elected as a state representative in Wyoming. </p><p> The lives of these individuals illustrate the robust and enduring civic and community involvement of inhabitants of the Great Plains and presage a hopeful continuation of its storied political tradition.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Peter J. Longo</strong> is a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He is coauthor of <em>The Nebraska State Constitution: A Reference Guide</em> <em>Second Edition</em> (Nebraska 2009).</p><p><br></p>