Essays on Western History in Honor of Elwyn B. Robinson

This book was published on the occasion of the retirement of Dr. Elwyn B. Robinson from the Department of History at the University of North Dakota. It features articles by several different historians regarding various subjects in the history of the American West.https://commons.und.edu/und-books/1021/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eThe North Dakota Political Tradition\u3c/i\u3e Edited by Thomas W. Howard

This volume is primarily designed to help North Dakotans understand their political institutions and traditions. Seven chapters by as many historians are readable summaries on basic themes of the state\u27s history. Robert Wilkins\u27s study of Alexander McKenzie, reputedly the political boss of Dakota Territory and North Dakota, is the most thorough summation available. Wilkins points out that McKenzie\u27s power was not absolute. In a desire to achieve fairness, Wilkins at times leans toward the position that ends justify means. However, McKenzie\u27s record is provided in detail. Charles Glaab definitively describes the career of John Burke, the Democratic governor whose 1906 election signaled the dethronement of McKenzie and the coming of the La Follette Progressive movement to North Dakota. Progressives such as George Winship, Martin Johnson, Edwin Ladd, and Charles Fisk receive appropriate credit. Larry Remcle\u27s chapter on the Nonpartisan League and D. Jerome Tweeton\u27s on its nemesis, the Independent Voters\u27 Association, complement one another, providing a vivid picture of the most distinctive and turbulent phase of the state\u27s political history. The irony that conservative use of NPL and Progressive reforms destroyed the effectiveness of the NPL could have been noted. Glenn Smith\u27s balanced account provides a record of William Langer\u27s political defeats and triumphs. There is one oversight. In the 1940 Republican senatorial primary, Langer won with only 40 percent of the vote, avoiding a defeat that probably would have ended his political career. It was the candidacy of Thomas Whelan, a popular American Legion leader and state senator from incumbent Lynn Frazier\u27s home county, that divided the anti-Langer vote. Dan Rylance\u27s excellent study of the Republican Organizing Committee as exemplified in the life of Fred Aandahl describes the manner in which the ROC, although never capturing Langer\u27s Senate seat, seized control of the state government. He explains how Aandahl\u27s withdrawal from the 1942 legislative race, because of farm management problems, made him the ROC leader who was constitutionally qualified for the 1944 gubernatorial race, the others having voted for an increase in the governor\u27s salary. He does not mention the torrential rain on primary election day, which had the effect of protecting Aandahl\u27s margin of 9,356 votes and giving the ROC the breakthrough necessary to become a factor in the state\u27s political life

On the Joint Evaluation of Absolute and Relative Deprivation

We lay out alternative ways of melding measures of absolute and relative deprivation in an index of overall deprivation, exploring the choices the analyst faces in this enterprise. The indices derived are used to answer two important empirical questions. First, did overall deprivation fall in the BRICS–Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa– between the early 1990s and late 2000s, alongside the fall in absolute deprivation? Second, what is the relationship between reductions in overall deprivation and economic growth? We show that the standard portrayal of the BRICS as economic success stories as well as the emphasis placed on economic growth in the reduction of deprivation must be qualified to some extent