Oklahoma Book Award Finalist

Who's Rocking the Cradle? Women Pioneers of Oklahoma Politics from Socialism to the KKK, 1900-1930

(PRWEB) February 19, 2005 -- How many women in the twentieth-first century can say they belong to good citizenship clubs, women's legislative councils, the Socialist party, or an anonymous organization called Women of the Ku Klux Klan? Few women today can claim membership in such politically active organization. But this was not always the case. In Whos Rocking the Cradle? Women Pioneers of Oklahoma Politics from Socialism to the KKK, 1900-1930, Suzanne Schrems uncovers the roots of Oklahoma women's political culture.

Whos Rocking the Cradle? begins on the left with the activities of Oklahoma women, who organized and promoted the Socialist party to Oklahoma farmers during the economic uncertainty of frontier settlement. But, after the Oklahoma Socialist party started to wane in 1916, and after passage of women's suffrage in state in 1918, Oklahoma women, more ideologically centered, became involved in politics to educated Oklahomans, especially women, to the responsibilities of citizenship and the meaning of good government.

As the country turned more to the right after the First World War, so too women's political culture. By the mid-1920s, many Oklahoma women joined such ultra conservative organizations as the Ku Klux Klan to fight against what they perceived as erosion in values of traditional America.

Suzanne Schrems also highlights in Whos Rocking the Cradle? the Oklahoma women who ran and were elected to political office. From Democrat Mrs. Lamar Looney from Hollis, who was elected to the Oklahoma state house, to Republican Alice Robertson from Muskogee, who was elected to the United State's house of representative in 1920, Schrems traces Oklahoma women's political activities and contributions to state and national politics.

Whos Rocking The Cradle? Pioneer Women of Oklahoma Politics from Socialism to the KKK, 1900-1930. Suzanne H. Schrems, Ph.D. ISBN 0-972221727, 15.95, Available from Horse Creek Publications. Ingram, National Book Network(Biblio), Quality Books.                        

Contact: Sue Schrems, e-mail protected from spam bots, 405-364-9647

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