Homer E. Socolofsky – författare

The first volume in the series State Bibliographies, this book provides comprehensive coverage of secondary materials on Kansas history and also includes useful references to major archival and manuscript collections. Although excellent specialized bibliographies have been published, this volume is the most complete compilation of historical and related materials for the state. Its broad and diverse scope ranges from standard political and economic studies to social and environmental histories, to local studies, and to regional studies with special significance to the state.The volume is divided into sections on prehistory; indigenous population; early exploration; territorial period; statehood; Kansas since 1898; agriculture; economic life; transportation; cultural life; education; science and medicine; social history; general histories and reference guides; local and county history; historiography materials; and historic sites. Entries include informative annotations designed to aid the novice and the scholar. The volume is thoroughly indexed by author and subject and includes the only existing index for all the major articles appearing over the past 125 years in the Kansas State Historical Society's major publications.

Benjamin Harrison was an early proponent of American expansion in the Pacific, a key figure in such landmark legislation as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the McKinley Tariff, and one of the Gilded Age's most eloquent speakers. Yet he remains one of our most neglected and least understood presidents. In this first interpretive study of the Harrison administration, the authors illuminate our twenty-third president's character and policies and rescue him from the long shadow of his charismatic secretary of state, James G. Blaine.An Ohio native and Indiana lawyer, Harrison opened the second century of the American presidency in a rapidly industrializing and expanding nation. His inaugural address reflected the nation's optimism: "The masses of our people are better fed, clothed, and housed than their fathers were. The facilities for popular education have been vastly enlarged and more generally diffused. The virtues of courage and patriotism have given proof of their continued presence and increasing power in the hearts and over the lives of our people."But the burdens and realities of his office soon imposed themselves upon Harrison. The biggest blow came at midterm with the Republicans' devastating losses in the 1890 congressional elections. In an era of congressional dominance, those losses eroded Harrison's position as a legislative advocate—at least, for domestic issues.His impact in foreign affairs was more lasting. One of the highlights of this study is its revealing look at Harrison's visionary foreign policy, especially toward the Pacific. Socolofsky and Spetter convincingly demonstrate that although Harrison's ambition to acquire the Hawaiian Islands was not realized during his presidency, his foreign policy was a major step toward American control of Hawaii and American expansion in the Far East.

This one-stop reference work is a governors’ hall of fame—a compendium of information about the 51 men who have held the chief executive post since the opening of the Kansas Territory in 1854.Using both primary and secondary sources, historian Homer Socolofsky sketches a concise biography of each governor and compares their roles in Kansas history. He also provides comparative election and demographic data, as well as suggestions for additional reading.Supplementing the text are 93 historic photographs, including each chief executive’s portrait and autograph. Twelve maps and tables depict and compare aspects of the governors’ lives, showing occupational background, birthplace, and residence.Kansas Governors brings together in a single volume a far more complete treatment of both territorial and state governors—as well as acting governors—than can be found in other biographical dictionaries. It will be a useful tool for Kansas history buffs, and an essential reference for school and public libraries.

William Scully, an Irishman who was a member of the lesser landed gentry, put his life’s energy into the accumulation of high-quality, low-cost land. He carefully husbanded his inheritance, and in 1850 he traveled to the United States and purchased with personal savings more than 8,000 acres in central Illinois. In 1851 he acquired another 30,000 acres of swampy virgin land. He added to his holdings until, by the late nineteenth century, he had amassed almost 225,000 acres of fertile farm land in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, and had become an absentee, alien landlord to some 1,500 tenants.Meanwhile, Scully was involved in lawsuits and violent landlord-tenant confrontations over his Irish holdings, which exceeded 2,000 acres. In one skirmish with his tenants Scully was severely wounded and two of his party were killed. Public remonstrance against Scully’s actions brought his name into notoriety throughout Great Britain.To handle his huge estate in America, Scully employed agents who were strategically located near his land. He inaugurated formal leasing procedures, insisting on elaborate controls: cash rentals, one-year leases, tenant-owned improvements, and soil conservation measures—all unusual for the time. Agitation against his practices as an absentee landlord in the 1880s and 1890s was widely covered in newspapers of the times. Because Scully used crop liens and court action to protect his rights, he was widely denounced for his disregard for his tenants’ welfare. State legislation designed to limit acquisition and inheritance of land by aliens finally forced Scully to gain American citizenship in 1900, six years before his death.Homer Socolofsky’s biography of Scully, the product of more than thirty years of research, provides a narrative and analysis of Scully’s activities as an investor in both Ireland and the United States. It is based on numerous archival and newspaper sources never before analyzed in published works, including private business records of the Scully estate, as well as Socolofsky’s interviews with Scully tenants.Socolofsky traces the acquisitions that led to Scully’s vast wealth, stressing the landlord’s strong will and determination and his unique methods of management. He looks closely at the charges against Scully on both sides of the Atlantic and describes Scully’s court fights and other confrontations with his tenants. Finally, he follows the inheritance of Scully’s multi-million dollar estate from Scully’s death to the present.Scully’s colorful career provides a unique opportunity for studying the economics and politics of land use in this country during the nineteenth century. This volume moves beyond biography to encompass an important segment of the business and agricultural history of the American Midwest.