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Leaders in four states, inspired in different ways by the intersection of economics and education reform, dramatically expanded publicly‐supported pre‐kindergarten in the 1990s. In Georgia, Gov. Zell Miller latched onto the idea of pre‐kindergarten as a means of improving education and boosting his state's economy; he ultimately made the program universal, creating a broad constituency. In Oklahoma, pre‐kindergarten was part of the reform demanded by the state legislature when the K‐12 system faced a fiscal crisis. Here education officials and legislators took the lead, quietly expanding their school‐based program to make it universal. In New York, early childhood advocates mobilized to implement a universal program at a time of economic growth, but were stalled for a number of years by fiscal crises and the opposition of their governor. New Jersey's preschool expansion, on the other hand, was driven by a court's ruling that the state must provide more funding to children in its most disadvantaged school districts. Each of these states helped lay the groundwork for a movement for “preschool for all.”

This chapter examines Max Weber's exploration of the American heartland and frontier, with particular emphasis on his experiences in Oklahoma and the Indian Territory. It first considers how the idea for Weber's Oklahoma and Indian Territory trip originated in the first place before discussing the “unique problems” that Weber encountered in the Indian Territory, including questions of tribal membership or citizenship, and land allotment. It then analyzes Weber's claim that the coming of modern industrial civilization led to the rapid disappearance of the romanticized past. As he put it, the “Leatherstocking romanticism” of native life and the frontier was coming to an end. The chapter also explores Weber's views on the construction of “nature,” the emergence of a new world, and traditionalism and concludes with an assessment of the significance of the frontier to Weber's work.

This chapter shows that folk game theory can be found in many different places other than Jane Austen's novels and African American folktales. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!, for example, demonstrates the strategic advantages of projecting naivety. Ali Hakim, like Brer Rabbit and Emma Woodhouse, illustrates the perils of overstrategicness. Will Parker, like Flossie's Fox and Sir Walter Elliot, reveals how overattention to social status and literal meaning indicates strategic imbecility. Laurey, like Fanny Price, highlights the importance of strategic thinking for a grown woman. Finally, Curly and Laurey, like Austen's couples, show how strategic partnership is a foundation for marriage. The chapter considers some other lessons that we can learn from Austen in terms of economics, the congruence of narrative and social theory, and the connection of human nature and human behavior to music and mathematics.

In the Jim Crow era, some Indians publicly identified with their Confederate heritage as a way to emphasize their affiliation with whites in Oklahoma. For purposes of segregation, the state constitution defined blacks as those with any amount of African ancestry. All others, including Indians, were considered white. That definition put into the law the racial divide that had begun emerging in the Grayson family a century earlier.

Elderly, illiterate, and inexperienced, Jackson Barnett required the services of a guardian to protect and preserve his estate, and he and his property were quickly drawn into the system of dual guardianship defined by the Oklahoma Closure Act of 1908. This assumption of jurisdiction by the county courts potentially subjected the Barnett estate to the system of legalized robbery. To protect Jackson's interests, the federal government aggressively advanced the position in 1912 that Jackson was an “average” full-blood, who was adequately supervised by the Department of the Interior. This was the first, but not the last time the Indian bureau would defend Jackson's competency in order to defend the larger principle of its exclusive federal jurisdiction over restricted Indians.

By late 1922, Commissioner Charles Burke's eyes were trained on a major political crusade, to which the liberation of Jackson Barnett from his Oklahoma guardian and the supervision of the Okmulgee County court was just a prelude. Burke sought a grand resolution for the “problem of riches” in Indian country. Jackson Barnett was his test case. Facilitating the Barnetts' relocation to California was an end in itself: the federal guardian's provision of the best possible security for an Indian ward. It was also a means to an end: the demonstration of the principle that the federal government's authority was superior to that of the local guardian.

This chapter explores how family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing dealt with the death of their loved ones by joining advocacy groups. It shows how relationships between group members helped victims to make sense of the bombing and to ascertain their own relationships to it. To better understand how group membership benefited survivors and family members, the chapter considers the profound emotional and psychological suffering that participants experienced in the bombing's aftermath. It also discusses community and memorial practices in Oklahoma City in the wake of the bombing, with particular emphasis on the work of the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building Memorial Task Force, the “habeas group,” and the Oklahoma City Murrah Building Survivor's Association. Finally, it analyzes the functions of groups formed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, along with the narrative benefits of companionship offered by advocacy groups.

The purpose of this chapter is to present an overview of the science that has been disseminated over the past decade on the psychological impact of terrorism. Both short- and longer-term research on the psychiatric and medical effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is first presented, and then compared to other studies within the United States (e.g., following the Oklahoma City bombing) and internationally (e.g., in Israel, England, Spain, France, etc.). Data are presented on both the general population as well as specific sub-groups that may be vulnerable to negative outcomes (e.g., those directly exposed, children, service professionals, etc.). Overall, this research suggests that while spikes in psychopathology occur immediately following an act of terrorism, these rates decline over time and return to baseline rates 6 to 12 months following the attack. However, specific populations exhibit more chronic rates of psychopathology over time (e.g., populations directly exposed, those with prior psychiatric history, etc.).

Returning to the eve of the first day of Field Artillery Officer Candidate School (FA-OCS) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma on January 1958, the chapter explains how John Shalikashvili, strategic by nature and aware of his poor academic and civilian job performances (Bradley University and Hyster Lift Company, respectively), decides to stick it out at OCS. It also overviews the impact that Donna Bechtold’s betrayal—leaving Peoria without a word—had on him, as well as the blow struck by another woman, someone back in Germany he’d turned to courting after Bechtold left.

Point Four projects began in Ethiopia in May of 1952 and continued until the creation of USAID. Joint funds created agricultural schools, public health training centers, and a handicraft school. Additional projects addressed pest control, irrigation, and hydroelectric power. Projects generally focused on rural development, despite the Imperial Ethiopian Government’s emphasis upon industrialization. Point Four was smaller in scope and vision than Haile Selassie liked, but it was better than nothing, so he praised the assistance that he got and pushed for more. Though ostensibly dedicated to the pursuit of democracy, U.S. aid projects ended up reinforcing the imperial government’s power by helping fund its very public development efforts. The Ethiopian peoples’ frustration with the lack of political change became visible in a 1960 coup attempt.

Australia now had its ‘Last Best West’, and it was not the only one. Between the 1880s and the 1920s, the settler revolution boomed into the last viable frontiers of the Anglo newlands, from Western Australia to Oklahoma, Southern California to the Yukon. It also went beyond them, in two senses: beyond the Anglo-world, to Siberia, the Argentine pampas, and elsewhere, and beyond viability, into the marginal arid lands of the Great Plains of the United States, the Canadian Prairies, and central Australia. In these late cases of explosive colonization, the boom mentality reached boiling point, and colonizing crusaders honestly believed they could transform deserts and arctic wastes into promised lands flowing with milk and honey. The staggering thing is that, sometimes, they were right.

This chapter opens with a discussion of the 2010 Oklahoma Referendum which vividly demonstrates public fears and misapprehensions about “shari’a law.” One such misapprehension is the belief (unsupported by evidence) that North American Muslims wish to establish shari’a as an alternate legal system. In contrast, this study suggests that Muslims understand their recourse to traditional processes such as Islamic marriage and divorce as an aspect of their private lives. The courts do not recognize Islamic marriage and divorce, refusing (in most cases) to enforce a promise by a husband to pay mahr contained in an Islamic marriage contract. At the same time, the courts (under the principle of “comity”) may recognize an Islamic marriage or divorce carried out in a Muslim country, even when it appears to be a sham to avoid obligations due in North America. There is clear evidence that North American Muslims use the courts in divorce matters (see chapter seven). Respondents saw no dissonance between their identity as Muslims and their citizen’s right to bring contentious matters to the courts. A very small number resisted either paying or receiving money under a court order because they felt this compromised their beliefs. Many more complained that the courts did not understand or respect Muslims.

This chapter explores how family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing dealt with the death of their loved ones by joining advocacy groups. It shows how relationships between group members helped victims to make sense of the bombing and to ascertain their own relationships to it. To better understand how group membership benefited survivors and family members, the chapter considers the profound emotional and psychological suffering that participants experienced in the bombing's aftermath. It also discusses community and memorial practices in Oklahoma City in the wake of the bombing, with particular emphasis on the work of the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building Memorial Task Force, the “habeas group,” and the Oklahoma City Murrah Building Survivor's Association. Finally, it analyzes the functions of groups formed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, along with the narrative benefits of companionship offered by advocacy groups.