Plains Political Tradition

South Dakota is often thought of as a conservative or “red” state, but its political culture is much more variegated and unpredictable than such colour-coded references might imply. Just as the nation as a whole consists of diverse regions and subcultures that manifest fairly wide swings of opinion and voting patterns over time, South Dakota contains its own geographic variations and political subcultures. The first volume illustrated the complex nature of state politics and cyclical change over time, and this new group of essays concentrates on some of the unpredictability and contradictoriness of the state and its citizens. Editors Jon K. Lauck, John E. Miller, and Donald C. Simmons, Jr., have brought together ten essays on a diverse number of topics to consider the state’s underlying political culture. Contributors deliberate over such topics as the influence of political organisations, conservatism, patriotism, leadership, local and national political culture, people’s movements, and cowboy politics in an effort to develop a fuller sense of where South Dakota fits into the growing study of modern political culture.