The Great Oklahoma Swindle

Race, Religion, and Lies in America's Weirdest State

Look down as you buzz across America, and Oklahoma looks like another “flyover state.” A closer inspection, however, reveals one of the most tragic, fascinating, and unpredictable places in the United States

Over the span of a century, Oklahoma gave birth to movements for an African American homeland, a vibrant Socialist Party, armed rebellions of radical farmers, and an insurrection by a man called Crazy Snake. In the same era, the state saw numerous oil booms, one of which transformed the small town of Tulsa into the “oil capital of the world.”

Add to the chaos one of the nation’s worst episodes of racial violence, a statewide takeover by the Ku Klux Klan, and the rise of a paranoid far-right agenda by a fundamentalist preacher named Billy James Hargis and you have the recipe for America’s most paradoxical state.

Far from being a placid place in the heart of “flyover country,” Oklahoma has been a laboratory for all kinds of social, political, and artistic movements, producing a singular list of weirdos, geniuses, and villains.

In this book, Russell Cobb tells the story of a state rich in natural resources and artistic talent, yet near the bottom in education and social welfare. Raised in Tulsa, Cobb engages Oklahomans across the boundaries of race and class to hear their troubles, anxieties, and aspirations and delves deep to understand their contradictory and often stridently independent attitudes.

Interweaving memoir, social commentary, and sometimes surprising research around the themes of race, religion, and politics, Cobb presents an insightful portrait that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about the American Heartland.

©2020 the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Required reading for any Oklahoman

Outstanding historical research and story telling. The research unveils a hard pill to swallow for those who blindly love the Sooner State, but one that must be accepted as it is both factual and shameful. It is one that any true Oklahoma. Should read, and in turn, use to make the former Indian Territory into a bette place from where it originated.

Explains Oklahoma so well

Love this book and recommended it to everyone I know. It made me laugh and nod, I learned some information and made me understand our state better. I very much enjoyed the references to the Native American history and the various cities. I myself grew up in Stilwell and am the daughter of a family of teachers who spent thousands of their own dollars to help their students have basic things like food or clothes but were never compensated or even able to write it off on their taxes. I have watched the state not change in the 40 years of being an Oklahoman, I went over seas for a couple of years only to return to a state that hadn’t changed in any positive way. We are a slowly sinking ship that we keep putting more holes in. This explains so much and every Oklahoman should read.

One sided

This book has some interesting stories and some facts. However, there are some things in here that I know are factually incorrect. I immediately want to give 1 star as someone who leans more right than left, but I have to be fair. He does have some very interesting facts and insights, but would appreciate if it were a little more down the middle all together.

As a Tulsa native it’s great to finally know that truth about so many things that are hidden in plain sight.

Great book that is incredibly informative. I thought I knew so much any Tulsa’s history, but I learned so much more. I had to move East for a job but my heart is still in Tulsa! The story is read my someone who has done inadequate research into pronouncing certain things correctly and it shows.

Very informative, important little known history

Of course, the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 has gotten well-deserved recognition in recent years, through several books and the centenary of the event. As well as the Osage killings, in the book and film Killers of the Flower Moon. But there is, unfortunately so much more to learn about the history of Oklahoma. For me, the most surprising (I don't know why, as it shouldn't come as a shock) was that the first legislation passed upon gaining statehood in 1907, was Senate Bill 1, essentially a Jim Crow law mandating segregation on public transportation. Not a great start, but sadly, to be expected. This book has some ugly history, as well as some well-intentioned cheerleading in praise of good points for the state. But it has to be said that "weird Christian" stuff hardly puts Oklahoma in the same class of "weird" for Austin or Portland. But, the author is doing his best to show his home state in some good light, so I can respect that.

P.S. - As for what is clearly a bot review from 'dw', dragging the rating down... The author does clearly have a perspective, but "liberal" doesn't mean untrue. In fact, if the 'do your own research' crowd *actually* did the research, they could see for themselves who are the truth tellers and who aren't. And the state's shoddy track record on truth and morality, under its long history of conservative control, should tell you all you need to know in that regard.