This first biography of William C. Stratton covers Illinois politics and the Stratton family from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Born into a political family and immersed in Republican politics throughout his youth, Stratton never seriously considered a career other than the one that led him to be a member of congress, state treasurer, and two-term governor of Illinois from 1953 to 1961.
Shortly after Stratton lost the 1960 Illinois gubernatorial race by a wide margin, federal agents began to check his financial records for possible income tax evasion. The IRS accused him of spending political contributions for personal use without paying taxes on them. Stratton was acquitted, but his political career was virtually finished, even though he did run again for governor in 1968.
Basing his work on original sources—including interviews with Stratton—David Kenney focuses on how and why Stratton became involved in politics. He examines Stratton’s goals and the methods he used to achieve them. His discussion of factionalism and the continuing conflicts within the Republican party from the 1920s through the 1950s provides a closeup portrait of Illinois party politics on all levels.

A Political Passage: The Career of Stratton of Illinois

Biographies & Memoirs

Kenney, David

Historical

Southern Illinois University Press

This latest revision of a classic text presents a comprehensive view of government in Illinois.David Kenney and Barbara L. Brown begin by describing the role of states in the federal system and the basic nature of Illinois as a governmental entity. Next they offer a thorough description of the policy-making process in government. They discuss the three political regions of Illinois―Chicago, Cook County and the collar counties, and downstate―and they outline recent trends in Illinois voter turnout, ticket splitting, party organization, the election schedule, voter qualifications, and the regulation of campaign finance.The problems created by the decennial redrawing of district lines, including the redistricting of 1991, are covered in Kenney and Brown’s treatment of the legislative branch of the government. Special emphasis is given to the question of who goes to the General Assembly and who its leaders are, along with a full description of the legislative procedure.Turning to the executive branch, Kenney and Brown first focus on the office of governor. Considerable attention is given to the multiple terms of James R. Thompson, Illinois’ longest serving governor, and the election in 1991 of James Edgar. The authors conclude the chapter with a description of the administrative structure of the executive branch.The Illinois court system and the jurisdictions of its three levels are presented as Kenney and Brown turn to the judicial branch of government. They provide biographical information on each of the current justices of the Illinois Supreme Court with particular emphasis on their partisanship. The judgeship selection process is carefully considered and Operation Greylord, which revealed pervasive corruption in the Cook County courts, is discussed. As is the case in each of the chapters on the branches of government, Kenney and Brown offer detailed descriptions of current public officials.Basic Illinois Government also includes chapters on local government, state and local finance, and policy-making issues in education, corrections, welfare, and transportation. In the local government section Kenney and Brown make clear the powers and functions of counties, townships, special districts, and municipal corporations, giving special attention to Chicago and Cook County. They compare the taxing and spending policies of Illinois to those of the rest of the United States and review in detail the controversial income tax increase of 1983 and 1989 with its extension in 1991.

Basic Illinois Government, Third Edition: A Systematic Explanation

History

Brown, Adjunct Professor Barbara L

Americas

This sweeping survey constitutes the first comprehensive treatment of the forty-seven individuals—forty-six white males and one African American female—who have been chosen to represent Illinois in the United States Senate from 1818 to 2003. David Kenney and Robert E. Hartley underscore nearly two centuries of Illinois history with these biographical and political portraits, compiling an incomparably rich resource for students, scholars, teachers, journalists, historians, politicians, and any Illinoisan interested in the state’s heritage.     An Uncertain Tradition: U. S. Senators from Illinois, 1818–2003 is a fresh and careful study of the shifting set of political issues occurring over time and illuminated by the lives of participants in the politics of choice and service in the Senate. Kenney and Hartley plot the course of the state’s varied senatorial leadership, from the state’s founding and the appearance of political parties, through the Civil War and its aftermath, and into the diverse political climate of the twenty-first century. From the notorious to the heroic, the popular to the pioneering, the senatorial roster includes such luminaries as “The Little Giant” Stephen A. Douglas; Lyman Trumbull, who served three terms in the Civil War era; “Uncle Dick” and “Black Jack,” also known as Richard Oglesby and John A. Logan; the “Wizard of Ooze” Everett Dirksen; and modern leaders such as Adlai Stevenson III, Paul Simon, and Carol Moseley-Braun.    Kenney and Hartley offer incisive commentary on the quality of senate service in each case, as well as timeline graphs relating to the succession of individuals in each of the two sequences of service, the geographical distribution of senators within the state, and the variations in party voting for senate candidates. Rigorously documented and supremely readable, this convenient reference volume is enhanced by portraits of many of the senators.

An Uncertain Tradition: U.S. Senators From Illinois 1818-2003

Hartley, Robert E.

Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters

Examining two devastating coal mine disasters
Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters examines two of the most devastating coal mine disasters in United States history since 1928. In two southern Illinois towns only forty miles apart, explosions killed 111 men at the Centralia No. 5 mine in 1947 and 119 men at the New Orient No. 2 mine in West Frankfort in 1951. Robert E. Hartley and David Kenney explain the causes of the accidents, identify who was to blame, and detail the emotional impact the disasters had on the survivors, their families, and their communities.
Politics at the highest level of Illinois government played a critical role in the conditions that led to the accidents. Hartley and Kenney address how safety was compromised when inspection reports were widely ignored by state mining officials and mine company supervisors. Highlighted is the role of Driscoll Scanlan, a state inspector at Centralia, who warned of an impending disaster but whose political enemies shifted the blame to him, ruining his career. Hartley and Kenney also detail the New Orient No. 2 mine explosion, the attempts at rescue, and the resulting political spin circulated by labor, management, and the state bureaucracy. They outline the investigation, the subsequent hearings, and the efforts in Congress to legislate greater mine safety.
Hartley and Kenney include interviews with the survivors, a summary of the investigative records, and an analysis of the causes of both mine accidents. They place responsibility for the disasters on individual mine owners, labor unions, and state officials, providing new interpretations not previously presented in the literature. Augmented by twenty-nine illustrations, the volume also covers the history, culture, and ethnic pluralism of coal mining in Illinois and the United States.

Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters examines two of the most devastating coal mine disasters in United States history since 1928. In two southern Illinois towns only forty miles apart, explosions killed 111 men at the Centralia No. 5 mine in 1947 and 119 men at the New Orient No. 2 mine in West Frankfort in 1951. Robert E. Hartley and David Kenney explain the causes of the accidents, identify who was to blame, and detail the emotional impact the disasters had on the survivors, their families, and their communities.
Politics at the highest level of Illinois government played a critical role in the conditions that led to the accidents. Hartley and Kenney address how safety was compromised when inspection reports were widely ignored by state mining officials and mine company supervisors. Highlighted is the role of Driscoll Scanlan, a state inspector at Centralia, who warned of an impending disaster but whose political enemies shifted the blame to him, ruining his career. Hartley and Kenney also detail the New Orient No. 2 mine explosion, the attempts at rescue, and the resulting political spin circulated by labor, management, and the state bureaucracy. They outline the investigation, the subsequent hearings, and the efforts in Congress to legislate greater mine safety. 
Hartley and Kenney include interviews with the survivors, a summary of the investigative records, and an analysis of the causes of both mine accidents. They place responsibility for the disasters on individual mine owners, labor unions, and state officials, providing new interpretations not previously presented in the literature. Augmented by twenty-nine illustrations, the volume also covers the history, culture, and ethnic pluralism of coal mining in Illinois and the United States.

This sweeping survey constitutes the first comprehensive treatment of the men and women who have been chosen to represent Illinois in the United States Senate from 1818 to the present day. David Kenney and Robert E. Hartley underscore nearly two centuries of Illinois history with these biographical and political portraits, compiling an incomparably rich resource for students, scholars, teachers, journalists, historians, politicians, and any Illinoisan interested in the state’s senatorial heritage.Originally published as An Uncertain Tradition: U.S. Senators From Illinois 1818–2003, this second edition brings readers up to date with new material on Paul Simon, Richard Durbin, and Peter Fitzgerald, as well as completely new sections on Roland Burris, Barack Obama, and Illinois’s newest senator, Mark Kirk. This fresh and careful study of the shifting set of political issues Illinois’s senators encountered over time is illuminated by the lives of participants in the politics of choice and service in the Senate. Kenney and Hartley offer incisive commentary on the quality of Senate service in each case, as well as timeline graphs relating to the succession of individuals in each of the two sequences of service, the geographical distribution of senators within the state, and the variations in party voting for Senate candidates. Rigorously documented and supremely readable, this convenient reference volume is enhanced by portraits of many of the senators.

The Heroic and the Notorious: U.S. Senators from Illinois

French Gold is a tale of murder and its solving, of life in the colonial village of Ste. Anne in the Illinois country, of buried treasure and its eventual unearthing. It is of a keelboat voyage from St. Louis to New Orleans and of the tender star-crossed love shared by the French woman Julie Coussat and young Auguste Chouteau along the way. Their journey is full of action - first an encounter with river pirates, then savage Indians, and finally a brutal attack upon Julie by supposed friends.This story tells of the present-day rebuilding of a wall at historic Fort de Chartres and how it came about. Fast paced, its action shifts back and forth and back again between Springfield, Illinois in the 1980s, the French Illinois country of 1764 and life on the river, and Paris in the bloody days of the French Revolution.Local historians demanded historical accuracy in the rebuilding of the wall at Fort de Chartres. It seemed necessary for research to be done in France and Spain. A professor of French language and literature was employed to conduct that inquiry while he was in Europe on a sabbatical leave. His findings in Seville and Paris led to the solution of an ancient murder, to the recovery of a long buried treasure in gold and silver from the bluffs along the Mississippi, and to the account written long ago by the French woman, Julie Coussat, of her time upon the river.Essentially, this a romantic tale of how a strong-willed woman was caused to become the binding link between past and present, and the means of our recreating a bit of the past for our time and the future.

French Gold: A Novella of the Illinois Country

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

AuthorHouse

French Gold is a tale of murder and its solving, of life in the colonial village of Ste. Anne in the Illinois country, of buried treasure and its eventual unearthing. It is of a keelboat voyage from St. Louis to New Orleans and of the tender star-crossed love shared by the French woman Julie Coussat and young Auguste Chouteau along the way. Their journey is full of action - first an encounter with river pirates, then savage Indians, and finally a brutal attack upon Julie by supposed friends. This story tells of the present-day rebuilding of a wall at historic Fort de Chartres and how it came about. Fast paced, its action shifts back and forth and back again between Springfield, Illinois in the 1980s, the French Illinois country of 1764 and life on the river, and Paris in the bloody days of the French Revolution. Local historians demanded historical accuracy in the rebuilding of the wall at Fort de Chartres. It seemed necessary for research to be done in France and Spain. A professor of French language and literature was employed to conduct that inquiry while he was in Europe on a sabbatical leave. His findings in Seville and Paris led to the solution of an ancient murder, to the recovery of a long buried treasure in gold and silver from the bluffs along the Mississippi, and to the account written long ago by the French woman, Julie Coussat, of her time upon the river. Essentially, this a romantic tale of how a strong-willed woman was caused to become the binding link between past and present, and the means of our recreating a bit of the past for our time and the future.

Understanding DCE is a technical and conceptual overview of OSF's Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) for programmers, technical managers, and marketing and sales people. Unlike many O'Reilly &amp; Associates books, Understanding DCE has no hands-on programming elements. Instead, the book focuses on how DCE can be used to accomplish typical programming tasks and provides explanations to help the reader understand all the parts of DCE.Contents include:
<ul>
<li>Purpose and goals of the Distributed Computing Environment.</li>
<li>Definition of a cell.</li>
<li>Distributing applications using RPC.</li>
<li>Improving program performance using threads.</li>
<li>Protecting resources using the security service.</li>
<li>Locating network resources using the directory (name) service.</li>
<li>Synchronizing network time using the time service.</li>
<li>Sharing and replicating files through the distributed file system.</li>
<li>Design and implementation considerations in writing distributed applications.</li>
<li>Getting started as a DCE administrator.</li>
<li>Determining your cell's boundaries.</li>
<li>Initial choices in configuration and administrative responsibilities.</li>
<li>Scenarios for security policies.</li>
<li>Considerations for breaking up or replicating services across multiple hosts.</li>
<li>Sample DCE application.</li>
<li>Answers to commonly asked DCE questions.</li>
<li>Finding an external time provider.</li>
<li>Registering a cell's DNS or X.500 address.</li>
</ul>

Understanding DCE

Computers & Technology

Rosenberry, Ward

Fisher, Gerry

Programming

O'Reilly Media

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kenney, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kenney, David

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kenney, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Political Passage: The Career of Stratton of Illinois

Basic Illinois Government, Third Edition: A Systematic Explanation

An Uncertain Tradition: U.S. Senators From Illinois 1818-2003

Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters

Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters

The Heroic and the Notorious: U.S. Senators from Illinois

French Gold: A Novella of the Illinois Country

French Gold: A Novella of the Illinois Country

Understanding DCE