Ragtime for the Rockies - Softcover

Lamb, Karl A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1479722669 ISBN 13: 9781479722662

Publisher: Xlibris, 2012

Synopsis

This tragic love story unfolds in and around the town of Platteville, Colorado in 1925 and 1926. [n the Roaring Twenties, young women challenge their elders by dancing to jazz music, wearing abbreviated clothing, and drinking prohibited alcohol. Some men express their opposition in church. Otbers join the Kc KLl; X KLA, which expands into the Northern States, promising violent resistance to social change. OWEN MATTISON comes to Platteville High School as athletics coach and science teacher, including Vocational Agriculture. Owen's bride, RUBY, a Home Economics graduate, is an accomplished pianist and jazz fan whose clothes and bobbed hair show the triumph of flapper fashion. We meet Owen and Ruby, married for six weeks, sharing a picnic on the LYDELL farm overlooking the river. Inspired by natural beauty, Owen sings the hymn that gives their story its title, and Ruby harmonizes. Returning to their tiny rented home, Owen receives a telephone call from ARTHUR STARK, a School Board member. Stark's son later says Stark dislikes the twentieth century and wants to hold it back. Stark changes a meeting date with Owen to attend a luncheon where he joins the Ku Klux Klan, with OLIVER SCOTT, the Platteville barber. Both men participate in the next Klan raid on a dancehall. Eager to teach moral values, the School Board votes to require readings of the King James Bible as part of classroom opening ceremonies. This distresses Catholic parents, whose children will be required to hear a proscribed text. FREDERlCK KOBLENZ, owner of the Platteville Mercantile store, organizes a protest student walkout. FRANCIS (FRA1\K) KOBLENZ, Frederick's son, leads the walkout from Owen's classroom. The School Board soon writes to all parents, requiring all students to remain for the Bible readings

About this title

About the Author

Born in Worland, Wyoming in 1933, I grew up in Colorado. I received a BA from Yale in 1954 with an English major and designation as Scholar of the House, which gave me time to write an apprentice novel in my senior year. Appointed to the Rhodes Scholarship, I completed a dissertation on American politics, and Oxford awarded a D. PhiJ. the "union card" for an academic career. I taught Political Science, first at the University of Michigan, then the University of California, Santa Cruz, and finally the U. S. Naval Academy, where I served as Academic Dean and Professor of Political Science, retiring in 1999. During this time, I published seven books and two dozen articles on aspects of American politics. My most novelistic effort was The People, Maybe, an American government textbook that went through three editions from 1971 to I 978. married Sally Walker in 1959. Our four children and five grandsons are almost equally divided between Maryland and the West Coast. Sally passed away in 2007. I miss her still.

Edition details

• Publisher: Xlibris
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1479722669
• ISBN 13: 9781479722662
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 212