Profiles in Courage: Standing Against the Wyoming Wind
“This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues – courage.‘ Grace under pressure,’ Ernest Hemingway defined it. And these are the stories of the pressures experienced by [certain individuals] and the grace with which they endured them – the risks to their careers, the unpopularity of their courses, the defamation of their characters, and sometimes, but sadly only sometimes, the vindication of their reputations and their principles.” From “Profiles in Courage” by John F. Kennedy (1955)
More bestselling books by Rodger McDaniel
Howard Zinn and Lois Mottonen Fistfight in the Equality State
From a review on Amazon; "Mottonen, who experienced many different aspects of life in Wyoming, shares event after poignant event—accompanied by fact after painful fact. Specifically of the different and varied injustices that Wyoming bestows on anyone who is a non-“white, male, Christian, heterosexual” (p. 127). Well-written and chronologically organized, the astute use of the historical record as backup for Mottonen’s experiences leaves no room for argument or subjectivity. It is simply a succinct work revealing Wyoming's unethical motives and agendas from its inception as a state to the present day…and just happens to be a fascinating read.”
The Sagebrush Gospel
What if the parables were re-written in the context of the social justice issues we face today. This book does that. For example, the Parable of the Good Samaritan becomes “The Parable of the Undocumented Samaritan” The Parable of the Prodigal Son becomes “The Parable of the Closed Son,” the Parable of the Vineyard Workers becomes “The Parable of the Day the Koch Brothers Stole the Vineyard.” with 17 more.
Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt
Book tells Hunt's life story and why he became one of the most popular elected officials in Wyoming history. In 1953, Senator Hunt took his own life after being harassed for a year by Senator Joseph McCarthy and two other powerful Republican senators trying to force him out of the senate by threatening to expose Hunt’s son’s arrest for soliciting homosexual sex.
The Man in the Arena: The Life and Times of US Senator Gale McGee
A biography of the last Democrat Wyoming ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Gale McGee, a history professor and noted liberal, served three terms in the Senate from 1959-1977. McGee played a central role in JFK's nomination for the presidency in 1960. He was the chief senate proponent of the War in Viet Nam, engaging in dozens debates with antiwar senators like George McGovern and Frank Church. The book also recounts his important role in passing Medicare, Medicaid, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as significant environmental legislation in the 1970s. After leaving the senate, McGee was appointed Ambassador to the Organization of American States where he was a central figure in the ratification of the Panama Canal Treaties.
“Rodger McDaniel is a fine writer and a thorough researcher. His account of the U.S. Senate in the 1960s and 1970s is solid and convincing. He has produced a study that should appeal to anyone interested in Congress's role in American foreign policy, the Vietnam War, and twentieth-century American politics." Don Ritchie, Historian Emeritus, U.S. Senate Historical Office