The fall of Kentucky's rock : western Kentucky Democratic politics since the New Deal / George G. Humphreys.

This book offers an examination of a region that is often overlooked in political histories of the Bluegrass State. The author traces the arc of politics and the economy in western Kentucky from avid support of the Democratic Party to its twenty-first century identity as a Republican stronghold. He demonstrates that, despite its relative geographic isolation, the region west of the eastern boundary of Hancock, Ohio, Butler, Warren, and Simpson Counties to the Mississippi River played significant roles in state and national politics during the New Deal and postwar eras. Drawing on extensive archival research and oral history interviews, the author explores the area's political transformation from a solid Democratic voting block to a conservative stronghold by examining how developments such as advances in agriculture, the diversification of the economy, and the civil rights movement affected the region. This study will leave readers with a deeper understanding of post-1945 Kentucky politics. -- Provided by publisher.