Our Kentucky: A Study of the Bluegrass State

Originally published in 1992 in conjunction with Kentucky\u27s bicentennial observations and designed for use in the high school classroom, Our Kentucky remains one of the most concise, well-written introductions to the Bluegrass State. While the focus is on history, specialists in other fields contribute chapters that provide a comprehensive description of Kentucky\u27s people and their past, present, and future. This expanded edition brings the scholarship up to date, ensuring the book\u27s continued availability for students and general readers. James C. Klotter is State Historian and professor of history at Georgetown College. He is the author of several books, including, with Lowell H. Harrison, A New History of Kentucky. A national context while describing what makes the state distinctive. —Indiana Magazine of History Our Kentucky is an impressive text. —Indiana Magazine of History Revised to meet the needs of Kentucky students. —Kentucky Monthly For a handy source of information about Kentucky, you can hardly do better. —WHAS Radio, Louisvillehttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/1138/thumbnail.jp

Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900-1950

This volume is the first comprehensive and in-depth history of Kentucky during the first half of the twentieth century. State Historian James C. Klotter examines in depth not only the people and their lives but also the state’s economy, educational system, cultural activities, politics, and folkways. He demonstrates how, enduring images and stereotypes developed that have shaped the state’s progress throughout the century. In his view, the first half of the century were years of unrealized promises and failed dreams. Yet amid poverty there was plenty; along with educational weaknesses were cultural strengths; beside partisanship there was leadership. “This is an account of what happened in Kentucky and to Kentucky,” Klotter writes. “It focuses on the process and the possibility of change, and how the people sought to adjust and to balance the positives of their past with the promises of their future. To know better what happened between 1900 and 1950 requires a study of not only the formal actions taken, but also the irony of actions, the presence of paradoxes, and the quieter things that shaped the state’s character, its essence, its heart and its soul.” A landmark in historical writing about the state, Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox is complemented by more than one hundred photographs and illustrations. Published by the Kentucky Historical Society and distributed by the University Press of Kentucky. James C. Klotter, State Historian and professor of history at Georgetown College, is the author and editor of several books, including A New History of Kentucky, History Mysteries, Our Kentucky, Kentucky: Land of Tomorrow, Kentucky:Decades of Discord, William Goebel, and Faces of Kentucky. The sweep of Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox is immense. Nearly every social and political development in the first half of the Commonwealth’s twentieth-century history receives some treatment. As such, it remains an essential starting point for any related future work. —Ohio Valley Historyhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/1121/thumbnail.jp

William Goebel: The Politics of Wrath

The turbulent career of William Goebel (1856–1900), which culminated in assassination, marked an end-of-the-century struggle for political control of Kentucky. Although populism had become a strong force in the nation, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and ex-Confederates still dominated the state and its Democratic party. Touting reforms and attaching the railroad monopoly, Goebel challenged this old order. A Yankee in a state that fancied itself southern, Goebel had to depend on a strong organization to win votes. As “The Kenton King” he created a new style of politics. To some he was a progressive reformer; to others, a tyrannical machine boss. His drive for power and his enemies’ fierce opposition aroused violent political factionalism. Goebel’s fateful duel with a rival, his partisan election law, and his ruthless convention tactics led to the bitterly contested gubernatorial election of 1899 that resulted in his murder. Although the full truth about the murder was never revealed in nearly a decade of trials and the advent of progressive politics was long delayed in Kentucky, Goebel’s death did relieve the state’s political turmoil and induce some legal reforms. Using new sources and fresh perspectives, James C. Klotter portrays Goebel’s tumultuous era and discovers the real man within the obscurity of his conflicting images. James C. Klotter is professor of history at Georgetown College and the state historian of Kentucky. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including A New History of Kentucky. A lively account of one of the most bizarre and controversial episodes in Kentucky history. -- Tennessee Historical Quarterlyhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_political_history/1000/thumbnail.jp

Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky & Missouri

A New Look at a Complex Region Look at studies of the northern states during the Civil War. Seldom will they discuss in any detail events in Kentucky and Missouri, even though those two states officially remained loyal during the conflict. Examine works on the South during that divisiv...

Kentucky: Decades of Discord, 1865-1900

This period of Kentucky\u27s history began with the unsettled society following the close of the Civil War, included bloody feuds, and closed with the tragic Goebel assassination. This book is the most thorough and most ambitious study yet made of that significant time, and the authors recapture the drama and color of these exciting, violent, partisan, and important years. Hambleton Tapp and James C. Klotter trace the progress—or lack of it—in such fields as agriculture, architecture, commerce, literature and general culture. They present the sporting and social life of both the masses and the elite. The story of the halting progress in education, the efforts of the men and women fighting for reform, the emerging fights for blacks’ and womens’ rights—all are examined. Politics captured and held the people’s attention, and the changing and transitional political history of the era is presented in depth. Over 70 pictures and maps create the atmosphere and temper of the times. Footnotes, appendixes, an index and a bibliographical essay combine to make this a path-breaking study of a long neglected period in Kentucky history. Hambleton Tapp of Versailles received his education at the University of Kentucky (Ph. D. 1950). He wrote and edited numerous books and articles on Kentucky history. James C. Klotter, State Historian and professor of history at Georgetown College, is the author and editor of several books, including A New History of Kentucky, History Mysteries, Our Kentucky, Kentucky: Land of Tomorrow, Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, William Goebbel, and Faces of Kentucky.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/1028/thumbnail.jp

Faces of Kentucky

Written by Kentuckians for Kentuckians, Faces of Kentucky is a comprehensive history of Kentucky designed for young students. The state’s story comes alive as never before through the images and life stories of the diverse people of the Commonwealth. The product of a collaboration of the State Historian of Kentucky and an award-winning teacher (both native Kentuckians), Faces of Kentucky approaches learning as a voyage of discovery. Numerous illustrations, thought-provoking questions, and historical mysteries to be solved seek to challenge young readers and to help them think about their state, themselves, and their future. Features: Timelines from early history to present Discussion questions; Over 250 photographs; 25 Maps; Primary Documents; Teacher\u27s Guide with companion CD for use in the elementary school classroom. James C. Klotter, the state historian of Kentucky and professor of history at Georgetown College, is the author, coauthor, or editor of many books, including The Breckinridges of Kentucky: 1760-1981, History Mysteries, Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox 1900-1950, A New History of Kentucky, Kentucky: Decades of Discord, 1865-1900, Kentucky: Land of Tomorrow, Our Kentucky: A Study of the Bluegrass State, Public Papers of Governor Simeon Willis, 1943-1947, and William Goebel: The Politics of Wrath. Freda C. Klotter, an educational programs consultant for the Kentucky Collaborative for Teaching and Learning, taught in elementary school classrooms for more than twenty-three years. [Faces of Kentucky] is appropriate for upper elementary grades but is thorough enough to hold the interest and provide useful information to older students. The authors have the stated goal of presenting the diversity of Kentuckians and recognizing the contributions of those who in the past have been overlooked. They are quite successful in this effort. —Kentucky Kaleidoscope Thanks to authors who know their material and how to present it, the book is an interesting blend of facts and thought-provoking questions. —Lexington Herald-Leader Faces of Kentucky . . . is a dramatic departure from standard, boilerplate fourth grade history textbooks. It will open young students\u27 minds to the complexities and richness of the Commonwealth\u27s past . . . [and] will set a new standard of excellence for history textbooks around the country. —University of Kentucky Newshttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/1125/thumbnail.jp

A Concise History of Kentucky

To most people, the word “Kentucky” is likely to inspire thoughts of Derby Day, burley tobacco fields, feuding Appalachian families, coal mines, and Colonel Sanders\u27 famous fried chicken. There is much more, however, to the Bluegrass State\u27s rich but often unexplored history than mint juleps and the Hatfields and McCoys. This book introduces a captivating story that spans 12,000 years of Kentucky lives, from Native Americans to astronauts. All facets of Kentucky history are explored—geography, government, social structure, culture, education, and the economy—recounting unique historic events such as the deadly frontier wars, the assassination of a governor, and the birth of Bluegrass music. The book features profiles of famous Kentuckians such as Daniel Boone, Abraham Lincoln, Loretta Lynn, and Muhammad Ali, as well as ordinary citizens.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/1160/thumbnail.jp

The Breckinridges of Kentucky

Across more than six generations—beginning before the Revolutionary War—the Breckinridge family has produced a series of notable leaders. These often controversial men and women included a presidential candidate, a U.S. vice president, cabinet members, generals, women’s rights advocates, congressmen, editors, reformers, authors, and church leaders. Along with success, the Breckinridges, like other Americans, faced hardship and war, contended with race, lived through difficult family situations—including a sex scandal—and encountered personal and political failure. An articulate, opinionated, and frank family, the Breckinridges have left a detailed record that allows us a vivid recreation of the range of American history and society. James C. Klotter, the state historian of Kentucky and professor of history at Georgetown College, is the author, coauthor, or editor of many books, including History Mysteries, Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox 1900-1950, A New History of Kentucky, Kentucky: Decades of Discord, 1865-1900, Kentucky: Land of Tomorrow, Our Kentucky: A Study of the Bluegrass State, Public Papers of Governor Simeon Willis, 1943-1947, and William Goebel: The Politics of Wrath. A well-written and often evocative narrative that is liberally sprinkled with first-rate analysis. —Indiana Magazine of History Traces the path of the well-known family from log cabins in colonial Virginia to the 20th century. —Kentucky Monthly Each of Klotter’s eight central figures merits extended study and he lists more than a dozen ‘secondary’ family members who seem ripe for historical investigation. —Ohio Valley History With a new, brief inroduction. . . this hefty volume is well worth the investment for anyone interested in Kentucky history, antebellum politics or the Army of Tennessee. —Civil War Newshttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/1099/thumbnail.jp

Bluegrass Renaissance: The History and Culture of Central Kentucky, 1792-1852

Originally established in 1775 the town of Lexington, Kentucky grew quickly into a national cultural center amongst the rolling green hills of the Bluegrass Region. Nicknamed the “Athens of the West,” Lexington and the surrounding area became a leader in higher education, visual arts, architecture, and music, and the center of the horse breeding and racing industries. The national impact of the Bluegrass was further confirmed by prominent Kentucky figures such as Henry Clay and John C. Breckinridge. Bluegrass Renaissance chronicles Lexington’s development as one of the most important educational and cultural centers in America during the first half of the nineteenth century. Editors Daniel Rowland and James C. Klotter gather leading scholars to examine the successes and failures of Central Kentuckians from statehood to the death of Henry Clay, in an investigation of the area’s cultural and economic development and national influence. Bluegrass Renaissance is an interdisciplinary study of the evolution of Lexington’s status as antebellum Kentucky’s cultural metropolis. Daniel Rowland is associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky and has published numerous articles on art, architecture, and political culture in early modern Russia as well as contributing to the Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History. James C. Klotter is professor of history at Georgetown College and the State Historian of Kentucky. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including A Concise History of Kentucky and A New History of Kentucky. This excellent collection of essays seeks to address an important, but understudied, time priod in Kentucky history during which Lexington and its surrounding areas were at their zenith both culturally and economically. This is a highly readable volume that should appeal to any person interested in the state\u27s history, that should become the standard \u27go-to\u27 text on this era in Kentucky for many years to come. --Anne Marshall, author of Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State The essays well testify to the breadth and high quality of work being undertaken on early Kentucky. -- Matthew G. Schoenbachler, author of Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy Stephen Aron is professor of history at UCLA and chair of the Institute for the Study of the American West at the Autry National Center. He is the author of How the West Was Lost: The Transformation of Kentucky from Daniel Boone to Henry Clay (1996) and American Confluence: The Missouri Frontier from Borderland to Border State (2006) and co-author of Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World from the Beginnings of Humankind to the Present (2011, 3d edition). Shearer Davis Bowman received his Ph. D. at the University of California at Berkeley and subsequently taught at Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Texas at Austin, Berea College, and the University of Kentucky before his death in 2009. He authored two well-received comparative studies, Masters and Lords: Mid-19th Century US Planters and Prussian Junkers (1993) and At the Precipice: Americans North and South During the Secession Crisis (2010), as well as numerous articles and reviews. Matthew F. Clarke is a Master’s candidate in Architecture and Urban Policy at Princeton University. His senior thesis as a Gaines Fellow at the University of Kentucky, Voices of Home in Bluegrass-Aspendale (2007), traced the shifting role of the Bluegrass-Aspendale housing project in Lexington’s social fabric. Currently he is researching the economic development of Vieques, Puerto Rico, and the regional infrastructure of New Jersey. Mollie Eblen is the public relations associate at Transylvania University in Lexington. She holds degrees in English and library science from the University of Kentucky. Tom Eblen is a columnist and former managing editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader. A Lexington native, he previously was a writer and editor for the Associated Press and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Randolph Hollingsworth is Assistant Professor in the Office of Undergraduate Education at the University of Kentucky. She also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the History Department, and is a faculty affiliate with Gender and Women’s Studies at U.K. While much of her research has focused on conservative thought and U.S. Women’s history in the South, her most recent work has focused on contemporary issues regarding open educational resources and Kentucky women’s history in the civil rights era. She is currently working on manuscript on the history of women in Kentucky. James C. Klotter, the State Historian of Kentucky and Professor of History at Georgetown College, is the author or editor of some dozen and a half books. They include The Breckinridges of Kentucky (1986) and Kentucky Justice, Southern Honor, and American Manhood, Southern Biography Series (2003). Previously he served as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Historical Society. Nikos Pappas of Lexington, Ky., has a wide range of musical interests both as a performer and as a scholar. A Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kentucky, he has been involved in documentary film scores, the creation of a traditional music archive, and work for presidential libraries and projects, including James Monroe and Abraham Lincoln. His research has garnered awards from the American Musicological Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Bibliographic Society. Estill Curtis Pennington has served in curatorial capacities for the Archives of American Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Morris Museum of Art. His publications include Kentucky: The Master Painters from the Frontier Era to the Great Depression and Lessons in Likeness: Portrait Painters in Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, 1802-1920 (2011). Gerald L. Smith is associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of A Black Educator in the Segregated South: Kentucky\u27s Rufus B. Atwood (1988). He is currently working on a general history of African Americans in Kentucky and serving as the general co-edtior of the Kentucky African American enycyclopedia. Patrick Snadon is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Interior Design at the University of Cincinnati. He has authored and coauthored articles and books on American architecture and interiors, including The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (2006, with Michael Fazio), which received the 2008 Hitchcock Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. He has engaged in historic preservation work for many years, including assisting in the restorations of two Latrobe buildings, the Pope Villa in Lexington, and Decatur House in Washington, D.C. He is currently researching Modernism in Cincinnati and has coauthored a guidebook, 50 from the 50s: Modern Architecture and Interiors in Cincinnati (2008). John R. Thelin is a Professor at the University of Kentucky. He is author of A History of American Higher Education (2004). In 2005, John teamed up with Sharon Thelin on a Kenucky Humanities Council project dealing with “Town and Gown in Kentucky: Campus and Community in the Commonwealth.” He is the co-author, with Amy E. Wells, of “Universities of the South” in The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Maryjean Wall, Ph.D., is author of How Kentucky Became Southern: A Tale of Outlaws, Horse Thieves, Gamblers, and Breeders (2010). She was the longtime horse racing writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader and teaches American history at the university level. She has won multiple awards for her writing. Mark Wetherington was born in Tifton, Georgia. Earning his Ph.D. in history in 1985 at the University of Tennessee, he served as director of the East Tennessee Historical Society, the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston, and presently is director of The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky. His first book The New South Comes to Wiregrass Georgia, 1860-1910 (1994) won the American Historical Association’s Herbert Feis book award in 1995. His second book Plain Folk’s Fight: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Piney Woods Georgia appeared in 2005. He has also served as an adjunct history professor at the University of Tennessee and the University of Louisville. These excellent essays now comprise the most comprehensive view of Lexington’s golden age in all its many facets while extorting the individuals who molded it into something great. In the end one understands why Lexington had a Latrobe house—the most sophisticated house designed in federal America—for it symbolized an earned preeminence. In time its preeminence faded but in these essays Lexington continues to teach us by revealing its strengths and weaknesses its success and failures which speak to our own. -- John E. Kleber, editor of The Kentucky Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Louisville Winner of the Clay Lancaster Heritage Education Award given by the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation Recipient of Clay Lancaster Herritage Education Award for their service in researching and disseminating information about Central Kentucky. -- Lexington Herald-Leader Taken as a whole, the collection is a treasure trove of references for the student of Kentucky history, and it introduces new fields of research and reflection. It is a great addition to the historiography and a welcome complement to earlier edited collections published by the University Press of Kentucky. -- Register of the Kentucky Historical Society [. . .] The well-crafted and well-researched essays illuminate the unique culture that flourished in the Central Bluegrass region during the antebellum era. Individuals who research and teach Kentucky history in the state’s universities and public schools will find in these chapters a wealth of information and insight to share with their classes. Bluegrass Renaissance is an exemplary book, a credit to its publisher. The essays within its covers add to our understanding of the antebellum cultural milieu that made the Bluegrass frontier an exciting and unique region. -- Indiana Magazine of Historyhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/1157/thumbnail.jp

A New History of Kentucky

The first comprehensive history of the state since the publication of Thomas D. Clark\u27s landmark History of Kentucky over sixty years ago. A New History of Kentucky brings the Commonwealth to life, from Pikeville to the Purchase, from Covington to Corbin, this account reveals Kentucky\u27s many faces and deep traditions. Lowell Harrison, professor emeritus of history at Western Kentucky University, is the author of many books, including George Rogers Clark and the War in the West, The Civil War in Kentucky, Kentucky\u27s Road to Statehood , Lincoln of Kentucky, and Kentucky\u27s Governors. James C. Klotter, the state historian of Kentucky and professor of history at Georgetown College, is the author, coauthor, or editor of many books, including The Breckinridges of Kentucky: 1760-1981, History Mysteries, Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox 1900-1950, A New History of Kentucky, Kentucky: Decades of Discord, 1865-1900, Kentucky: Land of Tomorrow, Our Kentucky: A Study of the Bluegrass State, Public Papers of Governor Simeon Willis, 1943-1947, and William Goebel: The Politics of Wrath. Making sense of these elements in both the regional and national settings is the challenge of state history, and one gallantly essayed by this book. The authors divide the labor and do differ from each other in their interests. -- Arkansas Historical Quarterly This well-written and judiciously illustrated history does not read like a normal historical work. A New History of Kentucky provides an enjoyable sojourn through Kentucky without the driving expense. -- Bowling Green Daily News Harrison and Klotter have . . . established a model for other state histories. -- Indiana Magazine of History The writing is clear, crisp, and exciting. . . . The arrangement and topic selection throughout is especially good. Everything from county politics to music is treated with an eye for topical conciseness and uniform, lyrical, precision. -- Journal of American History Will be \u27the book\u27 to read about Kentucky for many years to come by the general reader and scholar alike. -- Journal of Southern History It deserves to be called our state\u27s new definitive history. Best of all, its readable style will please the broad general audience of citizens and students for whom this book is intended. -- Lexington Herald Leader An invaluable guide to the forces that have shaped the state\u27s history and the patterns in that history that will well serve the needs of those who, in the new century and in the new millennium, recognize the truth in the words \u27the past is prologue. -- Louisville Courier Journal The authors pay much attention to detail without overwhelming their readers in minutiae. They invite one to experience and appreciate the Commonwealth and share their passion for its history. The honest, clear accounts describe a story that is rich, and brilliant, as well as sinister. -- Northern Kentucky Heritage This book reveals what the writing of state history can be. I wish Ohio had a history like this one. -- Ohio History The people of Kentucky (and all persons interested in the Bluegrass state) now have a \u27new history\u27 that incorporates the findings of the last generation of historical research and writing. -- Register of the Kentucky Historical Society A work that is both enjoyable and utilitarian; something not always achieved in works of this kind. . . From the earliest settlers to the recent reforms in Kentucky government and education, topics are arranged to both inform and enlighten the reader about the nature of the Commonwealth\u27s history. -- Southern Historian The book is a welcome synthesis of old and new research on the region, especially in political and economic history. -- The Filson Club Historical Quarterly “This book is a useful guide in a convenient and well-written format.” -- John Hennen -- Ohio History “Students would love this information to be presented in the classroom. Trivia buffs should love the variety of factoids to be gleaned. Kentuckians and those whose family pedigree includes ancestors from the state will take pride in the work. The history of Kentucky is interesting and intriguing. The Klotters have ensured their book is the same.” -- Linda Lee -- Armchair Interviewshttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/1153/thumbnail.jp