Boom Town

Boom Town
Author: Sam Anderson
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2018-08-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0804137323

A brilliant, kaleidoscopic narrative of Oklahoma City—a great American story of civics, basketball, and destiny, from award-winning journalist Sam Anderson NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Chicago Tribune • San Francisco Chronicle • The Economist • Deadspin Oklahoma City was born from chaos. It was founded in a bizarre but momentous “Land Run” in 1889, when thousands of people lined up along the borders of Oklahoma Territory and rushed in at noon to stake their claims. Since then, it has been a city torn between the wild energy that drives its outsized ambitions, and the forces of order that seek sustainable progress. Nowhere was this dynamic better realized than in the drama of the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team’s 2012-13 season, when the Thunder’s brilliant general manager, Sam Presti, ignited a firestorm by trading future superstar James Harden just days before the first game. Presti’s all-in gamble on “the Process”—the patient, methodical management style that dictated the trade as the team’s best hope for long-term greatness—kicked off a pivotal year in the city’s history, one that would include pitched battles over urban planning, a series of cataclysmic tornadoes, and the frenzied hope that an NBA championship might finally deliver the glory of which the city had always dreamed. Boom Town announces the arrival of an exciting literary voice. Sam Anderson, former book critic for New York magazine and now a staff writer at the New York Times magazine, unfolds an idiosyncratic mix of American history, sports reporting, urban studies, gonzo memoir, and much more to tell the strange but compelling story of an American city whose unique mix of geography and history make it a fascinating microcosm of the democratic experiment. Filled with characters ranging from NBA superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook; to Flaming Lips oddball frontman Wayne Coyne; to legendary Great Plains meteorologist Gary England; to Stanley Draper, Oklahoma City's would-be Robert Moses; to civil rights activist Clara Luper; to the citizens and public servants who survived the notorious 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, Boom Town offers a remarkable look at the urban tapestry woven from control and chaos, sports and civics.

O is for Oklahoma

O is for Oklahoma
Author: Boys & Girls Club of Oklahoma County
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2013-04-08
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0882409522

See-My-State Alphabet Books have a subject related to that specific state for each letter of the alphabet. Children from schools or Boys & Girls Clubs in each state write the rhyming couplet for each subject. The book project is an opportunity for each participating child to learn to express themselves in writing, learn meter and rhyming skills, and become a "published person" in a real book. The back of f the book is a section called "Who Knew" which gives a brief description of the facts and importance of each subject chosen for each letter of the alphabet. It is written by the editors. Each child is acknowledged by name for their contribution.

The Story of Oklahoma

The Story of Oklahoma
Author: W. David Baird
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 538
Release: 1994
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780806126500

Describes the people and events that have shaped the state's history

This Land Is Herland

This Land Is Herland
Author: Sarah Eppler Janda
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2021-07-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0806178590

Since well before ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 secured their right to vote, women in Oklahoma have sought to change and uplift their communities through political activism. This Land Is Herland brings together the stories of thirteen women activists and explores their varied experiences from the territorial period to the present. Organized chronologically, the essays discuss Progressive reformer Kate Barnard, educator and civil rights leader Clara Luper, and Comanche leader and activist LaDonna Harris, as well as lesser-known individuals such as Cherokee historian and educator Rachel Caroline Eaton, entrepreneur and NAACP organizer California M. Taylor, and Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) champion Wanda Jo Peltier Stapleton. Edited by Sarah Eppler Janda and Patricia Loughlin, the collection connects Oklahoma women’s individual and collective endeavors to the larger themes of intersectionality, suffrage, politics, motherhood, and civil rights in the American West and the United States. The historians explore how race, ethnicity, social class, gender, and political power shaped—and were shaped by—these women’s efforts to improve their local, state, and national communities. Underscoring the diversity of women’s experiences, the editors and contributors provide fresh and engaging perspectives on the western roots of gendered activism in Oklahoma. This volume expands and enhances our understanding of the complexities of western women’s history.

Secret Oklahoma City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Secret Oklahoma City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure
Author: Jeff Provine
Publisher: Reedy Press LLC
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2021-09-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1681063360

Oklahoma City was called “A City Born Grown” after it went from a population of a handful at Oklahoma Depot to over 10,000 on its first day. Nobody seems to mention how the streets were laid crooked and took 80 years to fix by tearing up half of downtown and that two rival city governments aimed guns at one another until the Supreme Court sorted out who was in charge. And that was only its first six months! Secret Oklahoma City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure shares the places and stories that you won’t hear in History class, though you probably should! Learn about the Chinese Tunnels that housed hundreds of immigrant workers underground. Visit the Overholser Mansion and see if the lady of the house is still in, sixty years after her death! Gain new respect for animal heroes at the American Pigeon Museum. Find out what a giant milk bottle is doing on top of an old grocery store off 23rd. Speaking of groceries, did you know the grocery cart was invented on the south side of town? Or that the parking meter got its start in downtown Oklahoma City? Oklahoma farm kid-turned-professor Jeff Provine has spent more than a decade learning the lesserknown tales of OKC. Come with him on a tour of the unexpected side of Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma Rescue

Oklahoma Rescue
Author: Jon Hansen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 250
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780345402523

"We felt the spirit of America in there--in that building with us. It's one of the things that kept us going." --Jon Hansen Assistant Fire Chief, Oklahoma City The devastating explosion that tore through the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on the morning of April 19, 1995, brought thousands of people rushing to help, hold, and heal. At the forefront of the gallant rescue effort was Assistant Fire Chief Jon Hansen, a career firefighter with twenty-two years' service. Now Hansen tells us the intimate story from the front lines, paying tribute to the men and women who became heroes in the days following the most violent act of terrorism in America's history. In this ultimate behind-the-headlines account, Hansen describes his first-hand experiences, from organizing the massive rescue effort on day one, through the valiant work performed in the harrowing area known as "the pit," to the heroic acts of courage he witnessed in the face of unfathomable loss. Candid, compelling, and inspirational, OKLAHOMA RESCUE is a true testament to bravery. "Chief Hansen has become the face of Oklahoma City, emerging as a symbol of this city's competence and compassion in the aftermath of the nation's worst terrorist attack." --The Dallas Morning News With 8 pages of photos

The Great Oklahoma Swindle

The Great Oklahoma Swindle
Author: Russell Cobb
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2020-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 149622003X

This unflinching look at Oklahoma's singular past helpfully fills in lesser-known aspects of the historical record.--Publishers Weekly An Oklahoma Bestseller 2021 Director's Award in the Oklahoma Book Awards Board of Directors Award for special merit 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. In The Great Oklahoma Swindle Russell Cobb tells the story of a state rich in natural resources and artistic talent, yet near the bottom in education and social welfare. Raised in Tulsa, Cobb engages Oklahomans across the boundaries of race and class to hear their troubles, anxieties, and aspirations and delves deep to understand their contradictory and often stridently independent attitudes. 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.

Historic Photos of Oklahoma City

Historic Photos of Oklahoma City
Author: Larry Johnson
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 90
Release: 2007
Genre: Historic buildings
ISBN: 1596523646

From a city that was founded in the Land Run of 1889, to becoming the state's largest city and capitol, Historic Photos of Oklahoma City is a photographic history collected from the areas top archives. With around 200 photographs, many of which have never been published, this beautiful coffee table book shows the historical growth from the mid 1800's to the late 1900's of this scenic city in stunning black and white photography. The book follows life, government, events and people important to Oklahoma City history and the building of this unique city. Spanning over two centuries and two hundred photographs, this is a must have for any long-time resident or history lover of Oklahoma City!

Weird Oklahoma

Weird Oklahoma
Author: Wesley Treat
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Curiosities and wonders
ISBN: 9781402754364

A collection of stories from all over the state of Oklahoma, relating some of the state's strange and unexplained phenomena.

Oklahoma Bird Life

Oklahoma Bird Life
Author: Frederick Milton Baumgartner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 443
Release: 1992
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780806117928

Located in the Oklahoma Collection.