Winner, ISHS Annual Award for a Scholarly Publication, 2017 Many people are unaware that from 1945 to 1975, downstate lawmakers dominated the Illinois political arena. In The Dealmakers of Downstate Illinois, Robert E. Hartley details the lives and contributions of three influential southern Illinois politicians, Paul Powell, Clyde Choate, and John Stelle. He describes how these “dealmakers” were able to work with Democrats and Republicans throughout the state to bring jobs and facilities to their region. Using a variety of coalitions, they maintained downstate political strength in the face of growing Chicago influence. Hartley traces the personal histories of Powell, Choate, and Stelle, shows how they teamed up to advance a downstate political agenda, and reviews their challenges and successes. Beginning with an account of early experiences, including the battlefield courage that earned Choate the Medal of Honor as well as Stelle’s World War I experience and later entrepreneurship, the book continues with an exploration of the groundwork for their collaborative legislative agenda and their roles in the growth of Southern Illinois University and the passage of income tax legislation. Hartley reviews the importance of Powell’s relationship with Governor Stratton, Choate’s leadership of the 1972 Democratic National Convention and his relationships with Governor Walker and with Chicago interests. The Dealmakers of Downstate Illinois is a vivid, straightforward tale of fighting in the legislative chambers, backstabbing behind the scenes, and trading special favors for votes in pursuit of not only personal gain but also the advancement of a regional agenda.

The Dealmakers of Downstate Illinois details the lives and contributions of three influential southern Illinois politicians of the 1970s, describing how these "dealmakers" brought jobs and facilities to their region and maintained downstate political strength in the face of growing Chicago influence.

"As in many American cities, inequality in Chicago and its suburbs is mappable across its neighborhoods. Anyone driving west along Chicago Avenue from downtown can tell where Austin turns into Oak Park without looking at a map. These borders are not natural, of course; they are carefully maintained through policies like zoning and school districting; some neighborhoods even annex themselves into distinct municipalities. In other words, they are all policy decisions. In Structuring Inequality, historian Tracy Steffes explores how metropolitan inequality was structured, contested, and naturalized through public policy in the Chicagoland area, especially through public education and state government. This metropolitan inequality deepened even amid civil rights mobilizations and efforts to challenge racial discrimination and promote equal opportunity. She argues that educational and metropolitan inequality were mutually constitutive: unequal schools and unequal places cocreated and reinforced one another. School districts not only reflected the characteristics and inequalities between places, but they also played an active role in shaping those communities over time. Throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, school districts defined community in part by reinforcing or undermining racial and economic segregation. Their perceived quality shaped the identity and value of the community, and schooling and its costs could drive development decisions, including what kind of property to allow and residents to attract. Decisions about school construction, student assignment, and school support were often important components of development strategy. By denaturalizing policy to explore the choices that have brought us here and looking at efforts to challenge them, this history helps us understand the inequality we live with today and inspire us to change it"--

Shifting demographics. Downstate versus Chicago. Billionaires and bribery. Even veteran observers need a roadmap to track Illinois’ ever-changing political landscape. Melissa Mouritsen, Kent D. Redfield, and James D. Nowlan provide an up-to-date primer on Prairie State politics, government, and policies. Features include: Discussions of recent events like the 2015-2017 budget disaster, the response to COVID-19, and the fall of longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan; New chapters on corruption, social policies, and the political rules of the game; Perspectives on the nuts-and-bolts of campaign funding, the ways political actors acquire power or influence, and many other topics; Close examinations of complex issues like the state’s increased polarization and its ongoing fiscal recovery. Fully revised and expanded, Illinois Politics blends detailed information with expert analysis to offer an essential resource for citizens, students, and public servants alike.

In the wake of the 2016 presidential election there was widespread shock that the Midwest, the Democrats’ so-called blue wall, had been so effectively breached by Donald Trump. But the blue wall, as The Conservative Heartland makes clear, was never quite as secure as so many observers assumed. A deep look at the Midwest’s history of conservative politics, this timely volume reveals how conservative victories in state houses, legislatures, and national elections in the early twenty-first century, far from coming out of nowhere, in fact had extensive roots across decades of political organization in the region. Focusing on nine states, from Iowa and the Dakotas to Indiana and Ohio, the essays in this collection detail the rise of midwestern conservatism after World War II—a trend that coincided with the transformation of the prewar Republican Party into the New Right. This transformation, the authors contend, involved the Midwest and the Sunbelt states. Through the lenses of race, class, gender, and sexuality, their essays explore the development of midwestern conservative politics in light of deindustrialization, environmentalism, second wave feminism, mass incarceration, privatization, and debates over same-sex marriage and abortion, among other issues. Together these essays map the region’s complex patchwork of viable rural and urban areas, variously subject to a wide array of conflicting interests and concerns; the perspective they provide, at once broad and in-depth, offers unique historical insight into the Midwest’s political complexity—and its status as the last real competitive battleground in presidential elections.

What happened to the 11 men who served as governor of Illinois from 1933 to 2003? That is what this book is about. Each life is traced from highlights and lowlights in office to the day the music stopped and life played out as a former governor. Most of them would have preferred to continue serving as the state’s chief executive. But that wasn’t an option. Each man faced the challenges of a new life. Some performed well, some did not. The eleven are a mixed bag of personalities, ambitions and attempts at further glory. Their stories offer a rich assortment of adventures ranging from failure to success, from further political involvement to heroic legal battles, and efforts to earn their way. Yes, stories of three who went to prison, Kerner, Walker and Ryan, are included. For the first time in print, the rest of the story is available.

From history books, memoirs, news stories and public utterances it is known that untold numbers of serving United States senators dreamed of residing in the Oval Office. Many fewer committed to open pursuit of the office, and even fewer made it. Three Illinois senators from the 1950s to the 1990s- Republican Charles H. Percy, Democrats Adlai E.Stevenson III and Paul Simon-can be counted as actively engaged in the hunt, with widely differing outcomes. Each had internal and external pressures. Percy: Encouraged by Dwight Eisenhower and his brother Milton and dogged by media speculation. Stevenson III:Expected to follow in the footsteps of his greatgrandfather, and his father, Stevenson II. Simon: Ambitious to find ever-higher elective outlets for his policy ideas, and willing to take the risk. Circumstances aside, their common goal was to be president. Their stories include campaign images, and fresh perspectives based on documents.