{"product_id":"a-life-on-fire-oklahomas-kate-barnard-9780806169293","title":"A Life on Fire: Oklahoma's Kate Barnard","description":"\"How can women wear diamonds when babies cry for bread?\" Kate Barnard demanded in one of the incendiary stump speeches for which she was well known. In \u003ci\u003eA Life on Fire\u003c\/i\u003e, Connie Cronley tells the story of Catherine Ann \"Kate\" Barnard (1875-1930), a fiery political reformer and the first woman elected to state office in Oklahoma, as commissioner of charities and corrections in 1907--almost fifteen years before women won the right to vote in the United States. Born to hardscrabble settlers on the Nebraska prairie, Barnard committed her energy, courage, and charismatic oratory to the cause of Progressive reform and became a political powerhouse and national celebrity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As a champion of the poor, workers, children, the imprisoned, and the mentally ill, Barnard advocated for compulsory education, prison reform, improved mental health treatment, and laws against child labor. Before statehood, she stumped across the Twin Territories to unite farmers and miners into a powerful political alliance. She also helped write Oklahoma's Progressive constitution, creating what some heralded as \"a new kind of state.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e But then she took on the so-called \"Indian Question.\" Defending Native orphans against a conspiracy of graft that reached from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C., she uncovered corrupt authorities and legal guardians stealing oil, gas, and timber rights from Native Americans' federal allotments. In retaliation, legislators and grafters closed ranks and defunded her state office. Broken in health and heart, she left public office and died a recluse. She remains, however, a riveting figure in Oklahoma history, a fearless activist on behalf of the weak and helpless. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCronley, Connie:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eConnie Cronley\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of three books of essays--\u003ci\u003eSometimes a Wheel Falls Off\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLight and Variable\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e Poke a Stick at It--\u003c\/i\u003eand coauthor with the late Edward Perkins of \u003ci\u003eMr. Ambassador: Warrior for Peace. \u003c\/i\u003eShe is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and lives in Tulsa. \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Oklahoma Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50705360716050,"sku":"9780806169293","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_743b5cfa-ee76-49ea-8b66-7fa6ff6def27.jpg?v=1734487230","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-life-on-fire-oklahomas-kate-barnard-9780806169293","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}