Few men have been more important to the life of Kentucky than three of those who governed it between 1930 and 1963―Albert B. Chandler, Earle C. Clements, and Bert T. Combs. While reams of newspaper copy have been written about them, the historical record offers little to mark their roles in the drama of Kentucky and the nation. In this authoritative and sometimes intimate view of Bluegrass State politics and government at ground level, John Ed Pearce―one of Kentucky's favorite writers―helps fill this gap. In half a century as a close observer of Kentucky politics―as reporter, editorial writer, and columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal―Pearce has seen the full spectacle. He watched "Happy" Chandler vault into national prominence with his flamboyant campaign style. He was shaken by Earle Clements for asking an awkward question. He joined in the laughter when a striptease artist was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel during the Combs administration. And he watched as the successive governors struggled to move the state forward, each in his own way. Yet this is more than a newsman's account of events. Pearce probes for the roots of the troubles that have slowed Kentucky's progress. He traces the divisions that have plagued the state for almost two centuries, divisions springing from the nature of Kentucky's beginnings. He studies the lack of leadership that has hampered the always dominant Democratic party and the bitter factionalism that has kept the party from developing a cohesive philosophy. When the candidate of one faction has taken office, he shows, the losing faction has usually made political hay by bolting to the opposition party or torpedoing the governor's efforts in the legislature instead of uniting behind a progressive party program. The outcome of such long-term factionalism is a state that must now run fast to catch up.

Divide and Dissent: Kentucky Politics, 1930-1963

History

Pearce, John Ed

Americas

University Press of Kentucky

Divide and Dissent: Kentucky Politics 1930-1963

Univ Pr of Kentucky

Here―in haunting words and pictures―is the story of the river and of the people and places along its shores. From its birth at Pittsburgh in the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, the Ohio flows nearly a thousand miles, gathering the waters of its tributaries, carving a pathway through the land, giving rise to cities, forming the boundaries of five states, and finally emptying into the Mississippi to complete its journey to the sea. This powerful river shaped the history, the culture, and the character of those who followed the river's lure in the eighteenth century and those who make their homes beside it today. It was the first great pathway to the West, the trail of danger, the highway of hope. The Ohio today flows through the industrial heartland of the United States. Drawn by the power of this great river, writer John Ed Pearce and photographer Richard Nugent have traveled the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Cairo and back, seeking out the scenes, the echoes of history, the rhythms of life for those who call the Ohio home. This book is the record of their discoveries―on the river itself and in the villages and cities and farmlands that form it shores.

The Ohio River

Arts & Photography

Nugent, Richard

Photography & Video

" Among the darkest corners of Kentucky's past are the grisly feuds that tore apart the hills of Eastern Kentucky from the late nineteenth century until well into the twentieth. Now, from the tangled threads of conflicting testimony, John Ed Pearce, Kentucky's best known journalist, weaves engrossing accounts of six of the most notorior accounts to uncover what really happened and why. His story of those days of darkness brings to light new evidence, questions commonly held beliefs about the feuds, and us and long-running feuds―those in Breathitt, Clay Harlan, Perry, Pike, and Rowan counties. What caused the feuds that left Kentucky with its lingering reputation for violence? Who were the feudists, and what forces―social, political, financial―hurled them at each other? Did Big Jim Howard really kill Governor William Goebel? Did Joe Eversole die trying to protect small mountain landowners from ruthless Eastern mineral exploiters? Did the Hatfield-McCoy fight start over a hog? For years, Pearce has interviewed descendants of feuding families and examined skimpy court records and often fictional newspapeputs to rest some of the more popular legends.

Days of Darkness: The Feuds of Eastern Kentucky

Memoirs: 50 years at the Courier-Journal and other places

Travel

United States

Sulgrave Press

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Books by Pearce, John Ed