Publisher Description

William Frederick "Billy" Klair (1875-1937) was the undisputed czar of Lexington, Kentucky, for decades. As political boss in a mid-sized, southern city, he faced problems strikingly similar to those of large cities in the North. As he watched the city grow from a sleepy market town of 16,000 residents to a bustling, active urban center of over 50,000, Klair saw changes that altered not just Lexington but the nation and the world: urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. But Klair did not merely watch these changes; like other political bosses and social reformers, he actively participated in the transformation of his city.

As a political boss and a practitioner of what George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall referred to as "honest graft," Klair applied lessons of organization, innovation, manipulation, power, and control from the machine age to bring together diverse groups of Lexingtonians and Kentuckians as supporters of a powerful political machine. James Duane Bolin also examines the underside of the city, once known as the Athens of the West. He balances the postcard view of Bluegrass mansions and horse farms with the city's well-known vice district, housing problems, racial tensions, and corrupt politics. With the reality of life in Lexington as a backdrop, the career of Billy Klair provides as a valuable and engaging case study of the inner workings of a southern political machine.

Back Cover

'We are in Africa, now known as Ifrik. The northern hemisphere has succumbed to a new Ice Age. Two children, Mara and Dann, set forth on an odyssey towards the greener country on the chilly southern edge of the Mediterranean. As in all folk tales based on a journey, they pass through ordeals. They meet huge beetles whose pincers can bisect a child, lizards that can carry off a woman in their jaws, both as adventure story and as ecological fable, displays all the vision of a muscular mind. I hope everyone reads it and it wins all the prizes.'VICTORIA GLENDINNING, 'Literary Review' 'Part fairy tale, part tract for our time, this is an ambitious, demanding, remarkable book. With 'Mara and Dann', Lessing has created a mythical girl and boy who are also touching and credible. Into Mara, the girl child who finds herself, Lessing pours all her insight into how female nature is shaped. A wise, rich and melancholy book.'ANNE CHISHOLM, 'Sunday Telegraph' 'Together Mara and Dann trace the patterns of gender and of human love from childhood to sexual maturity. Mara's adventures are female, stories of love, fertility, vulnerability and ultimately empowerment; Dann's are darker tales of temptation and sin. Asserted throughout this gripping narrative is a belief in the indestructibility of love. A fascinating profoundly curious novel.' 'Lessing imagines in extraordinary detail how Mara slowly learns survival - how to dig up yellow roots to make flour, how to milk a half-starved cow, how to avoid the giant insects that flourish as drought and flash floods drive human beings into retreat. The reader is left elated by the epic scope of Lessing's vision of life on earth. She has produced her best book yet.'MAGGIE Gee, 'Daily Telgraph'

Author Biography

James Duane Bolin is professor emeritus of history at Murray State University. He is the author of Home and Away: A Professor's Journal, Bossism and Reform in a Southern City: Lexington, Kentucky, 1880-1940, and Kentucky Baptists, 1925--2000: A Story of Cooperation.

Review

"A richly detailed picture of an urban politician defending his interests and exercising power beyond municipal boundaries. The discussion of state-level politics provides the reader with the context often missing from studies of urban politics." -- Journal of American History
"An excellent study of the rise and decline of a classic machine politician." -- Choice
"An important book.... Well written and sheds light on the conundrum of political reform and the power of urban bosses." -- American Historical Review
"Anyone interested in Kentucky politics and history will find the book a significant addition to the literature." -- Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
"Bolin's book of Lexington under Klair is more than a local history. It is a case study in the decline and disappearance of urban 'bossism' that dominated American cities during the century between Civil War days and Civil Rights days." -- Greenwood (SC) Index-Journal, Orangeburg (SC) Times and Democrat
"Bolin's well-organized and easy-to-read book, based on extensive research in primary sources, is an important contribution to the study of bossism and to Kentucky history." -- H-New Reviews
"Figures such as Klair and histories of cities like Lexington have much to offer political and social historians." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"For those who love politics and political history, especially Kentucky's rough and tumble variety, the story of Billy Klair of Lexington is a must." -- Louisville Courier-Journal
"It is surprising, given its traditions and history, that the staid Bluegrass city of Lexington should have become the stronghold of one of Kentucky's most influential political bosses. In that age of political bosses, Bolin clearly reveals the techniques and devices used by a masterful politician to achieve his ends. This book is eminently readable and a significant addition to the study of bossism in America." -- John D. Wright Jr.
"Makes an excellent contribution to the study of American city machines and political reform, as well as the urban South." -- Journal of Southern History
"Many studies look only at the local urban level, yet bosses operated at all three levels -- local, state, and national. The tripartite focus of the book is one of its greatest strengths." -- Roger W. Lotchin
"The story of Billy Klair, the political boss who wielded major influence in the growth and changes that took place in Lexington." -- Kentucky Libraries
"This latest addition to the extensive literature on bosses and machines is on of the most welcome." -- North Carolina Historical Review
"Well researched, and it should prove interesting and useful to anyone focused on American politics, southern history, or the history of Lexington." -- Ace Magazine

Long Description

A fascinating novel of love and ecology from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Doris Lessing returns to the world of visionary fiction, first visited in her Canopus in Argos quintet of novels in the 1980s, and in 'Mara and Dann', to which this is a sequel, in 1999. The Earth's climate has changed - it is colder than ever before - and Dann, four in the first book, is now grown up and a general, and the man to whom everyone looks for guidance and leadership. Lessing's novel charts his adventures across the frozen wastes of the north, a journey that will eventually lead to the discovery of a secret library.

Review Quote

"Well researched, and it should prove interesting and useful to anyone focused on American politics, southern history, or the history of Lexington.-- Ace Magazine" -- Ace Magazine

Description for Sales People

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