Reflection Paper on Chapter 14, Western Politics, of It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West by Richard White

[This was a reflection paper I had to write on Chapter 14 of It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West by Richard White.  Chapter 14 is called "Western Politics"]
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In his fourteenth chapter, Western Politics, Richard White deals with the political system in the west.  White writes about the Working Men’s Party and their anti-chinese rhetoric.  He talks about the struggle woman endured to be able to vote, and about prohibition.  He also talks about political corruption, mentioning the case of William Clark and Marcus Daly.  White writes about the radical populist movement, and the Progressive movement.  White mentions the high Ku Klux Klan and their high level of support in many areas of the West.

I found interesting the mass support for prohibitions, how it encompassed both the right and some radicals.  I also found it interesting how support for prohibition was often divided among ethnic lines.  I was surprised as well to see that the Socialist party at one time had twenty-five percent of the vote in Oregon.  Another thing that interested me is the lack of roots any political party had in the West, so it was victim to the winds of change.  I was rather sickened by how much broad base support the Ku Klux Klan received in the West.  It sounded like the Klan was even more successful in the West than it had been in the South.