Sons of the Wild Jackass: The Nonpartisan League in North Dakota

Napoleon Bonaparte once told his courtiers that true leadership required the ability to inspire those who would follow. “A leader is a dealer in hope,” he insisted. This kind of leadership inspired farmers of North Dakota to form the Nonpartisan League in 1915. Stirred by charismatic leaders—including a stem-winding speaker who told his lieutenants to lie to the farmers when it helped the cause, a future governor who would survive a series of scandals, and a talented lawyer who was perpetually threatened by debt—the League sparked similar actions in neighboring states. The League’s best times were brief, but what the members achieved influenced national legislation and programs that aid American farmers to this day.

Drawing on newspapers, interviews and collections of private papers, Sons of the Wild Jackass uses ground-level perspectives to tell the story of the League.

Hardcover, 264 pp., 23 photographs, index, bibliography
$29.95
Picture of Sons of the Wild Jackass: The Nonpartisan League in North Dakota

Terry L. Shoptaugh is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He received a PhD in American History from the University of New Hampshire in 1984. During his twenty-eight years as Archivist of Minnesota State University Moorhead, he taught history and humanities courses and published five books on the history and culture of North Dakota and Minnesota, including You Have Been Kind Enough to Assist Me, on Herman Stern's work to rescue German Jews from Germany in the 1930s, and They Were Ready, about the North Dakota National Guard's experiences in the Pacific War, 1942-1945. Two additional books, Red River Floods: Fargo and Moorhead and Moorhead, are photograph compilations available for purchase from Arcadia Publishing. Shoptaugh is currently researching a book on the Baby Boom. 

ISBN: 978-1-946163-12-7

Page count: 252

Picture Count: 24

Bibliography

Index

Hardcover

Publication Year: 2019

Product tags