Long before movie stars Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger became governors of California, a popular radio personality with no previous political experience—who wasn't even registered to vote—swept into the governor's office of Texas. W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel was a 1930s businessman who discovered the power of radio to sell flour. His musical shows with the Light Crust Doughboys (which launched the career of Bob Wills) and his radio homilies extolling family and Christian values found a vast, enthusiastic audience in Depression-era Texas. When Pappy decided to run for governor in 1938 as a way to sell more flour—a fact he proudly proclaimed throughout the campaign—the people of Texas voted for him in record numbers. And despite the ineptitude for politics he displayed once in office, Texans returned him to the governorship in 1940 and then elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1941 in a special election in which he defeated Lyndon Johnson, as well as to a full term as senator in 1942. While the hit film O Brother, Where Art Thou? celebrated a fictional "Please Pass the Biscuits, Pappy" O'Daniel, this book captures the essence of the real man through photographs taken by employees of the Texas Department of Public Safety, most of which are previously unpublished. Reminiscent of the work of WPA photographers such as Russell Lee and Dorothea Lange, these photos record the last unscripted era of politics when a charismatic candidate could still address a crowd from an unpainted front porch or a mobile bandstand in the back of a truck. They strikingly confirm that Pappy O'Daniel's ability to connect with people was as great in person as on the radio. To set the photos in context, Bill Crawford has written an entertaining text that discusses the political landscape in Texas and the United States in the 1930s, as well as the rise of radio as mass medium for advertising and entertainment. He also provides extensive captions for each picture. John Anderson, Photo Archivist of the Texas State Archives, discusses the work of Joel Tisdale and the other DPS photographers who left this extraordinary record of the greatest vote-getter in Texas history, who became one of America's first celebrities to cross the line from entertainment to political office.

When the venerable historian Norman D. Brown published Hood, Bonnet, and Little Brown Jug in 1984, he earned national acclaim for revealing the audacious tactics at play in Texas politics during the Roaring Twenties, detailing the effects of the Ku Klux Klan, newly enfranchised women, and Prohibition. Shortly before his death in 2015, Brown completed Biscuits, the Dole, and Nodding Donkeys, which picks up just as the Democratic Party was poised for a bruising fight in the 1930 primary. Charting the governorships of Dan Moody, Ross Sterling, Miriam “Ma” Ferguson in her second term, and James V. Allred, this engrossing sequel takes its title from the notion that Texas politicians should give voters what they want (“When you cease to deliver the biscuits they will not be for you any longer,” said Jim “Pa” Ferguson) while remaining wary of federal assistance (the dole) in a state where the economy is fueled by oil pump jacks (nodding donkeys). Taking readers to an era when a self-serving group of Texas politicians operated in a system that was closed to anyone outside the state’s white, wealthy echelons, Brown unearths a riveting, little-known history whose impact continues to ripple at the capitol.

How can broadcasting help us understanding music and its cultural role, both historically and today? To answer this question, Music and the Broadcast Experience brings together fourteen leading music and media scholars, who explore how music and broadcasting have developed together throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries.

The result of years of research by its authors, this discography strives to identify and trace the recorded development of the musical style now known as western swing from its early years through World War II. The style developed from the Texas string band tradition, growing from a fiddle and guitar duo into full swing band groups, and along the way, it drew from and absorbed a variety of other musical styles, thus making it one of the most diverse genres in American music. Until now, studies have been limited to a few book-length biographies, but through exhaustive research and interviews, Ginell and Coffey have provided the most complete and comprehensive listing of pre-War western swing and hot string band recordings to date. Accessible through a variety of indexes, the information included here comprises four sections. The reader can easily find cross-referenced information on which musicians played with which bands on which songs. Easy-to-follow linear and chronological development of the music is provided as well.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

The bestselling author of Plain Speaking crafts a candid portrait of one of the most complex, fascinating, difficult, and colorful American presidents. From his birth in 1908 to his death in 1973, the story of Lyndon B. Johnson is told without sparing his personal excesses and contentious public image—while also highlighting the strength of his greatest accomplishments in Washington. Interlaced with interviews from Lady Bird Johnson, John Kenneth Galbraith, J. William Fulbright, Larry O’Brien, Hubert H. Humphrey, and hundreds of others, Miller provides an extensive and objective image of the life of LBJ. “No secret remains. This is Lyndon Johnson true, lunging through life, pouring ‘every ounce of his energy’ into whatever he did, ranting, raving, shouting, ‘screaming at the universe,’ flogging system, staff and self to achieve what others pronounced unachievable . . . Miller allows his posse of turncoats—336 in all, myself among them—to lead him to the Johnson few ever knew: at his best, magnificent; at his worst, outrageous.” —Horace Busby, The Washington Post “The domestic triumphs and the Johnson style come across like the Fourth of July . . . page-by-page, this is the low-down up to the Presidency—and one long book that never flags.” —Kirkus Reviews

More than twenty years in the making, Country Music Records documents all country music recording sessions from 1921 through 1942. With primary research based on files and session logs from record companies, interviews with surviving musicians, as well as the 200,000 recordings archived at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's Frist Library and Archives, this notable work is the first compendium to accurately report the key details behind all the recording sessions of country music during the pre-World War II era. This discography documents--in alphabetical order by artist--every commercial country music recording, including unreleased sides, and indicates, as completely as possible, the musicians playing at every session, as well as instrumentation. This massive undertaking encompasses 2,500 artists, 5,000 session musicians, and 10,000 songs. Summary histories of each key record company are also provided, along with a bibliography. The discography includes indexes to all song titles and musicians listed.