This book tells the story of the greatest public scandal in the history of the state of Kansas.

At the nadir of the Great Depression, in the summer of 1933, a million and a quarter in forged bonds and warrants were discovered in the state treasury and in bond brokerage houses. Before the affair was over, martial law was declared in the statehouse; four criminal convictions were effected--including the three longest sentences in the state's penal history; two state officers were impeached; six federal indictments were handed down, including one against the president of one of the Midwest's...

More than fifty years after repeal of the Volstead Act, this nation continues to debate the issues surrounding the use and control of alcohol. While the organized temperance movement in the United States is nearly as old as the nation itself, in no region of the country has the question of liquor control been of more consuming or enduring interest than in Kansas. Until now, however, there has been no broadly interpretive social history that chronicled prohibition in Kansas.

Robert Bader's comprehensive account presents an even-handed analysis of the reform movement and of the role of...

Ignobility stalks Kansas in an urban-centered and media-shaped American culture that tilts toward the coasts. The snubs proliferate. In the movie Vacation Chevy Chase contemplates a stop in Kansas at the House of Mud, "the largest free-standing mud dwelling ever built." A novelist skewers the oft-maligned Kansas landscape, "Love a place like Kansas and you can be content in a garden of raked sand," A poster urges the daring to "ski Kansas," and a New Yorker cartoon depicts a highway sign that announces, "You are entering Kansas, or some state very much like it." In the James Bond film...