title: Sidney Lumet

text: Lumet's published memoir about his life in film, "Making Movies" (1996), is "extremely lighthearted and infectious in its enthusiasm for the craft of moviemaking itself", writes Bowles, "and is in marked contrast to the tone and style of most of his films. Perhaps Lumet's signature as a director is his work with actors – and his exceptional ability to draw high-quality, sometimes extraordinary performances from even the most unexpected quarters" Jake Coyle, a writer for the Associated Press, agrees: "While Lumet has for years gone relatively underappreciated, actors have consistently turned in some of their most memorable performances under his stewardship. From Katharine Hepburn to Faye Dunaway, Henry Fonda to Paul Newman, Lumet is known as an actor's director", and to some, like Ali MacGraw, he is considered "every actor's dream".


title: Sidney Lumet

text: In the belief that Lumet's "compelling stories and unforgettable performances were his strong suit", director and producer Steven Spielberg described Lumet as "one of the greatest directors in the long history of film". Al Pacino, upon hearing of Lumet's death, stated that with his films, "he leaves a great legacy, but more than that, to the people close to him, he will remain the most civilized of humans and the kindest man I have ever known". "Boston Herald" writer James Verniere observes that "at a time when the American film industry is intent on seeing how low it can go, Sidney Lumet remains a master of the morally complex American drama". Following his death, fellow New York directors Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese both paid tribute to Lumet. Allen called him the "quintessential New York film-maker", while Scorsese said "our vision of the city has been enhanced and deepened by classics like "Serpico", "Dog Day Afternoon" and, above all, the remarkable "Prince of the City"". Lumet also drew praise from New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who called him "one of the great chroniclers of our city".


title: Sidney Lumet

text: He did not win an individual Academy Award, although he did receive an Academy Honorary Award in 2005 and 14 of his films were nominated for various Oscars, such as "Network", which was nominated for 10, winning 4. In 2005, Lumet received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers, and the art of the motion picture.


title: Sidney Lumet

text: A few months after Lumet's death in April 2011, TV commentator Lawrence O'Donnell aired a tribute to Lumet, and a retrospective celebration of his work was held at New York's Lincoln Center with the appearance of numerous speakers and film stars. In October 2011, the organization Human Rights First inaugurated its "Sidney Lumet Award for Integrity in Entertainment" for the TV show, "The Good Wife," along with giving awards to two Middle East activists who had worked for freedom and democracy. Lumet had worked with Human Rights First on a media project related to the depiction of torture and interrogation on television.


title: Sidney Lumet

text: Lumet was married four times; the first three marriages ended in divorce. He was married to actress Rita Gam from 1949 to 1955; to artist and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt from 1956 to 1963; to Gail Jones (daughter of Lena Horne) from 1963 to 1978; and to Mary Bailey Gimbel (ex-wife of Peter Gimbel) from 1980 until his death. He had two daughters by Jones: Amy, who was married to P.J. O'Rourke from 1990 to 1993, and actress/screenwriter Jenny, who had a leading role in his film "Q&A". She also wrote the screenplay for the film "Rachel Getting Married" (2008), as well as co-creating two television series with Alex Kurtzman, "The Silence of the Lambs" sequel "Clarice", and "".


title: Sidney Lumet

text: Lumet died at the age of 86 on April 9, 2011, in his residence in Manhattan from lymphoma. When asked in a 1997 interview about how he wanted to "go out", Lumet responded, "I don't think about it. I'm not religious. I do know that I don't want to take up any space. Burn me up and scatter my ashes over Katz's Delicatessen".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and film director. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.". Yoakam had considerable success throughout the late 1980s onward, with a total of ten studio albums for Reprise Records. Later projects have been released on Audium (now MNRK Music Group), New West, Warner, and Sugar Hill Records.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: His first three albums"Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.", "Hillbilly Deluxe", and "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room"all reached number one on the "Billboard" Top Country Albums chart. Yoakam also has two number-one singles on Hot Country Songs with "Streets of Bakersfield" (a duet with Buck Owens) and "I Sang Dixie", and twelve additional top-ten hits. He has won two Grammy Awards and one Academy of Country Music award. 1993's "This Time" is his most commercially successful album, having been certified triple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam's musical style draws from a wide variety of influences including neotraditional country, honky-tonk, Bakersfield sound, bluegrass music, country rock, and rockabilly. He is known for his distinctive tenor singing voice, unconventional musical image, and the lead guitar work of his longtime producer and bandleader Pete Anderson. Yoakam writes most of his own songs while also holding a large number of successes with cover songs. Artists whom he has covered include Johnny Horton, Elvis Presley, The Blasters, Lefty Frizzell, and Queen. He has collaborated with Beck, John Mellencamp, k.d. lang, Ralph Stanley, and members of Alison Krauss & Union Station.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: As an actor, Yoakam has appeared in the movies "Red Rock West", "Sling Blade", "The Minus Man", and "Wedding Crashers", as well as "South of Heaven, West of Hell", his directorial debut. He also appeared in the TV series "P.S. I Luv U" and "Under the Dome", as well as the Amazon Prime Video original series "Goliath".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Dwight David Yoakam was born October 23, 1956, in Pikeville, Kentucky. He is the oldest of three children to David Yoakam and Ruth Ann Tibbs. At the time of Yoakam's birth, his father was serving in the United States Army. After David Yoakam was discharged from the Army, the Yoakams moved to Columbus, Ohio. By this point the couple had a second son named Ronald and a daughter named Kimberly. Meanwhile, David supported his family through a number of odd jobs which included factory work at Westinghouse Electric Corporation and ownership of a Texaco gas station. Yoakam's father had acquired a guitar manufactured by the Kay Musical Instrument Company while in the Army, and gave it to Yoakam after being unable to learn to play it himself. Although Yoakam later broke this guitar, he received another one as a Christmas present while he was in the fourth grade. He also wrote his first song around this point. As a child, Yoakam took influence from the music that his parents listened to on records as well as WMNI, then an AM country music radio station in Columbus. Among these records were compilations by Johnny Cash and Johnny Horton. According to his mother, the family would also sing songs to each other when on road trips to visit Yoakam's maternal grandparents. Yoakam himself also stated that he took influence from rock and roll acts he had seen on television, such as Elvis Presley.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: The Yoakam family moved to another neighborhood of Columbus in 1968, where Yoakam attended high school. His mother encouraged all three of her children to join the school's band, in which Yoakam played drums. He also attended drama class, which led to him playing the role of Charlie in a production of "Flowers for Algernon". Yoakam later attributed this performance as giving him more confidence performing in front of others. In his senior year of high school, Yoakam and some classmates formed a rock and roll band to compete in the school's talent show. The band became popular enough that they began performing at a number of private parties throughout Columbus as The Greaser Band. Yoakam attended Ohio State University, but quickly dropped out in order to focus on his musical career. While playing at a club in Gahanna, Ohio, Yoakam was approached by a man who promised a musical contract but later turned out to be a con artist. Despite this, Yoakam chose to move to Nashville, Tennessee, to continue pursuing a career in country music. He faced difficulty in the Nashville music scene, as his style was more indebted to honky-tonk and bluegrass music at a time when such sounds were not popular compared to country pop and Nashville sound.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam then moved to Los Angeles, California, at the encouragement of Billy Alves, a former member of the Greaser Band. While he was initially unsuccessful there as well, he met guitarist and record producer Pete Anderson at a Los Angeles bar in 1982. The two became friends when they realized they had common interest in musicians such as Merle Haggard. Anderson also observed that cowpunk and alternative country were popular in California through acts such as Joe Ely, Rank and File, and Lone Justice. By performing at clubs where these acts also performed, Yoakam was thus able to gain further exposure.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: By 1984, Yoakam had written a large number of songs. Anderson then encouraged him to record some of them on an extended play. He also served as producer and lead guitarist on the project, roles he would serve throughout most of Yoakam's career. The EP was titled "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc." and was released through the Oak Records label. It consisted of five of Yoakam's original compositions, plus a cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Songs from the extended play received airplay on independent radio stations throughout Los Angeles. Later in the year Yoakam was chosen to serve as an opening act for The Blasters. This led to him being discovered by Reprise Records executive Paige Levy, who helped Yoakam sign with the label in 1986. Reprise re-issued "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc." that year with four more tracks, thus making it his debut album. One of the added tracks was "Bury Me", a duet with Maria McKee. The first single off the album was a cover of Johnny Horton's 1956 single "Honky Tonk Man". Yoakam's rendition of the song charted at number three on "Billboard" Hot Country Songs in mid-1986. The song was even more successful in Canada, reaching the number one position on that nation's country music charts then published by "RPM". "Honky Tonk Man" also received a music video, which in 1986 became the first by a country artist to air on MTV. The album itself reached the number one position on "Billboard" Top Country Albums.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Two more singles followed, both of which Yoakam wrote himself. These were "Guitars, Cadillacs" and "It Won't Hurt", both of which made Hot Country Songs. Thirteen years after its release, "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc." was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), honoring shipments of two million copies in the United States. At the 29th Annual Grammy Awards in 1987, the album was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and "Guitars, Cadillacs" was nominated for Best Country Song. The Country Music Association (CMA) also nominated Yoakam for the Horizon Award (now called Best New Artist) and "Honky Tonk Man" for Music Video of the Year. Yoakam also won Top New Male Vocalist at the 1986 Academy of Country Music (ACM) awards.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: The album was reviewed favorably. Thom Jurek of AllMusic wrote of the album that it contained influences of Bob Dylan and Bakersfield sound. His review also noted the number of personal songs written by Yoakam himself, as well as the cover versions of "Ring of Fire" and Ray Price's "Heartaches by the Number". Ron Fell of "Gavin Report" compared Yoakam's musical image favorably to Buddy Holly and Bruce Springsteen while also stating that Yoakam had "an authenticity to his persona". Writing for the "Rapid City Journal", Leonard Running noted the use of fiddle, steel guitar, and Dobro in the production.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam's second Reprise album "Hillbilly Deluxe" was released in 1987. The album was also led off by a cover song; specifically, Elvis Presley's "Little Sister". After this were Yoakam's original compositions "Little Ways" and "Please, Please Baby", followed by a cover of Lefty Frizzell's "Always Late with Your Kisses". All four of these cuts made top ten on the country music charts between 1987 and early 1988. "Little Ways" was a number one single on the Canadian "RPM" country charts. Also covered on the album was Stonewall Jackson's "Smoke Along the Track". One of the other tracks on the album was "Readin', Rightin', Rt. 23", an autobiographical song which Yoakam wrote about the towns along U.S. Route 23 in Kentucky near his grandparents' houses. "Hillbilly Deluxe" was certified platinum for shipments of one million copies, and earned Yoakam another Grammy Award nomination in the category Best Male Country Vocal Performance. It also reached number one on Top Country Albums. Jurek praised the cover songs in his review for AllMusic, where he compared Yoakam's vocal phrasing favorably to Merle Haggard. He also noted the use of lap steel guitar and fiddle in Anderson's production, as well as Yoakam's lyrics on "Readin', Rightin', Rt. 23". An uncredited review in "Music & Media" magazine stated, "The album features sophisticated, yet fresh country music with rollicking C&W guitar lines, supplemented with Yoakam's straight, yearning vocals."


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: His third Reprise album was 1988's "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room". The album was his third and final to top the "Billboard" country albums chart. Its first two singles were also his only number one entries on Hot Country Songs, both peaking there in 1988. These were a cover of Buck Owens' "Streets of Bakersfield" which featured Owens on duet vocals, and "I Sang Dixie". Before "Streets of Bakersfield" was recorded for the album, Yoakam had contacted Owens (who was retired from performing at the time) and convinced him to sing the song on a television special for CBS. The commercial success of the studio version also led to Owens ending his retirement and re-signing with Capitol Records later in the decade. The third single from "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room" was "I Got You"; while this song reached number five on the country charts, the album's title track failed to enter top 40. This album once again featured Maria McKee on backing vocals, along with accompaniment by Tejano accordionist Flaco Jiménez. Also covered on the album were Hank Locklin's "Send Me the Pillow You Dream On" and Johnny Cash's "Home of the Blues". Jurek thought that the album "shows the first signs of beginning to stretch out and be comfortable with his unique approach to hard honky tonk music, Bakersfield-style". "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room" and "Streets of Bakersfield" were respectively nominated for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 31st Annual Grammy Awards. The latter also received a CMA nomination for Vocal Event of the Year.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam ended the 1980s with his first greatest hits album, "Just Lookin' for a Hit". The album consisted of eight previously-released singles and two newly-recorded cover songs. These were of The Blasters' "Long White Cadillac" and The Flying Burrito Brothers' "Sin City", the latter of which Yoakam recorded as a duet with k.d. lang. "Long White Cadillac" was issued as a single, reaching number 35 on the country music charts. The "Sin City" cover received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Collaboration.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: In 1990, Yoakam entered the "Billboard" country charts for the thirteenth time with "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose", which peaked at number eleven. This song led off his fourth studio album "If There Was a Way". The album would account for five more singles between 1990 and 1992: "You're the One", "Nothing's Changed Here", "It Only Hurts When I Cry", "The Heart That You Own", and the Patty Loveless duet "Send a Message to My Heart". Of these, all except "Send a Message to My Heart" were top-20 country hits. "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose" was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance, Yoakam's fourth nomination in that category.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Unlike his previous albums, Yoakam co-wrote several tracks on "If There Was a Way" with other writers. He wrote with Roger Miller on "It Only Hurts When I Cry", a song to which Miller also contributed backing vocals. Yoakam had met Miller at the Grammy Awards and presented him with the title, and Miller agreed to co-write the song after Yoakam stated he was a fan of Miller's music. "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose" was one of the first successful cuts for Greek-American songwriter Kostas. Record producer Tony Brown had sent Kostas' demo of the song to Pete Anderson because he thought the song sounded like Yoakam had written it. Because of this, Anderson suggested that Yoakam begin writing songs with Kostas. The two co-wrote both "Nothing's Changed Here" and "Send a Message to My Heart" on "If There Was a Way", leading to further collaborations on subsequent albums. Yoakam had written "You're the One" in 1978 about a woman with whom he had ended a relationship. In addition to Roger Miller, backing vocals on the album included Amy Ray (of the Indigo Girls) and bluegrass musician Tim O'Brien. Alanna Nash of "Entertainment Weekly" rated the album "A", stating that it continued on the "hillbilly" themes of his previous albums while also containing more rock and roll influence than its predecessors. Jurek praised the album for rock influences as well, particularly the cover of "Let's Work Together".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam contributed to two movie soundtracks in 1992. First, he cut two songs for "Falling from Grace", the 1992 directorial debut of rock singer John Mellencamp. Yoakam performed Mellencamp's composition "Common Day Man"; the two also joined Joe Ely, John Prine, and James McMurtry on the track "Sweet Suzanne". Credited to Buzzin' Cousins, this song charted on Hot Country Songs for five weeks in early 1992. It also accounted for Yoakam's second CMA nomination in the category of Vocal Event of the Year. Later in the year, Yoakam covered Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" for the soundtrack of "Honeymoon in Vegas". This rendition charted on Hot Country Songs by year's end. In addition to these, he re-recorded "Miner's Prayer", a track from "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.", as a duet with bluegrass singer Ralph Stanley on the latter's 1992 album " Saturday Night & Sunday Morning". This track was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Country Vocal Collaboration. Finally, Yoakam released an album titled "La Croix d'Amour" for the European market in 1992. This consisted mainly of selections from other albums, as well as previously-unreleased cover songs.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: For his next studio album, 1993's "This Time", Yoakam wrote either by himself or in collaboration with Kostas. The only exception was the album's lead single "Ain't That Lonely Yet", which Kostas co-wrote with James House. This song peaked at number two on the "Billboard" country charts, while also topping the American "Radio & Records" country music charts and Canadian "RPM" country charts. It won Yoakam the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1993, his first win from that association. "This Time" charted four more singles between 1993 and 1994. First were "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere" and "Fast as You", which both achieved peaks of number two as well. The latter also became Yoakam's first entry on the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at 70. After these were "Try Not to Look So Pretty" and "Pocket of a Clown", which were less successful on the charts. Of the album, Anderson told "Gavin Report" that "It's really the first record we've made where we just took all the boundaries down", while Yoakam himself said that "I felt that my musical statements on the preceding albums were valid, but that they were complete statements and there was no need to further articulate them. It was time to allow my music latitude." He cited the track "Home for Sale" as an example, describing it as a "stone country" lyric backed by a Hammond organ, an instrument not commonly used in country. Jurek noted influences of doo-wop in "Pocket of a Clown" and of Roy Orbison in "Ain't That Lonely Yet". In July 1994, Yoakam began the This Time Tour, a 75-city tour which featured Alison Krauss and Union Station as an opening act. The Country Music Association nominated "Ain't That Lonely Yet" for Single of the Year in 1993, and Yoakam himself in the category Male Vocalist of the Year in 1994. The album achieved his highest RIAA certification, for triple-platinum in 1996.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam released two albums in 1995. The first was "Dwight Live", a live album composed of recordings from the This Time Tour. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote of this album that "nothing on the album improves on the original recorded versions", while Tony Scherman of "Entertainment Weekly" thought the album was "beautifully paced" and showed Yoakam's strengths as a vocalist. The album was certified gold in 1996. His other release for 1995 was the studio album "Gone". Yoakam wrote the entire album, collaborating with Kostas on two songs. Among the backing vocalists were Carl Jackson, Jim Lauderdale, Joy Lynn White, and The Rembrandts. "Nothing", one of the collaborations with Kostas, was selected as the lead single and charted at number 20 on Hot Country Songs in 1995. The song's B-side "Gone (That'll Be Me)" and "Sorry You Asked?" were released as singles as well, though neither reached top 40. Jurek thought that individual tracks displayed influences of rhythm and blues, mariachi, Tejano music, and psychedelic rock. Jeffrey B. Remz of Country Standard Time wrote that "Gone" was "a critically received album, which did not do boffo numbers because Yoakam received very little airplay for what was probably his most musically diverse album. And in some parts of the country, his tour did not draw crowds either."


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam's next release for Reprise was 1997's "Under the Covers", an album composed entirely of cover songs. Yoakam and Anderson had begun recording songs for this project prior to "Gone", while other selections previously appeared on "La Croix d'Amour". The project accounted for only one single in a rendition of The Everly Brothers' "Claudette". Bluegrass musician Ralph Stanley played banjo on a cover of The Clash's "Train in Vain", while Sheryl Crow sang duet vocals on a cover of Sonny & Cher's "Baby Don't Go". Jurek wrote of this album, "While this set is not perfect, it's still damn fine and warrants repeated listens to come to grips with Yoakam's visionary ambition." Remz praised the covers of Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" and "Train in Vain" in particular, but criticized the cover of The Beatles' "Things We Said Today". After this was an album of Christmas music titled "Come On Christmas", released later in the year. Yoakam wrote the title track and "Santa Can't Stay", while the rest of the album largely consisted of traditional Christmas songs such as "Away in a Manger" and "Silver Bells". Thom Owens of AllMusic wrote that the album contained "high-spirited, entertaining country-rockers that may not add anything new to Yoakam's catalog, but they make the record an enjoyable holiday album."


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Between 1995 and 1997, Yoakam received three consecutive Grammy nominations in the category of Best Male Country Vocal Performance. The songs nominated in this category were "Pocket of a Clown", "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere", and "Nothing". He also received three consecutive nominations for Best Country Album between 1996 and 1998, with the nominations going to "Dwight Live", "Gone", and "Under the Covers". After these was his next studio album of original content, 1998's "A Long Way Home". Yoakam wrote the entire project by himself, making it his first not to have any co-writers or cover songs. The album charted two singles in "Things Change" and "These Arms". This album also featured Ralph Stanley, this time as a duet partner on "Traveler's Lantern". Brian Steinberg of Country Standard Time thought that the album was "back to basics" and comparable to Yoakam's releases in the 1980s, stating that "This isn't Yoakam's most innovative work, but it contains enough moments to make it worth attention." Also in 1998, Yoakam funded a charity album for release on Little Dog Records, a label which his then-producer and guitarist Pete Anderson owned. This album was titled "Will Sing for Food" and featured other artists recording renditions of Yoakam's songs. Among the artists contributing were Sara Evans, Mandy Barnett, Kim Richey, Gillian Welch, and David Ball. Nash contrasted these two albums in a double review, calling "A Long Way Home" "a fresh, dynamic set, updating his trademark Bakersfield-does-L.A. sound without sacrificing his honky-tonk roots" while stating that "Will Sing for Food" had "stunningly original interpretations". Steinberg gave the latter a mixed review, praising the contributions of Bonnie Bramlett and Scott Joss while considering other cuts on the album too similar in sound to Yoakam's originals.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: In 1998, Columbia Records released "A Tribute to Tradition", a multi-artist tribute album to 1960s and 1970s country music. Yoakam was one of several artists featured on the album's closing track "Same Old Train", an original composition by Marty Stuart. The track featured twelve other country musicians, including Earl Scruggs, Merle Haggard, Clint Black, and Randy Travis. It charted for five weeks on Hot Country Songs in late 1998. The song won Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, thus giving Yoakam his second win from the organization. It was also nominated for CMA Vocal Event of the Year.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam ended the decade with his second greatest-hits package, "". In addition to tracks from his 1990s Reprise albums, the compilation included three new songs. These were covers of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and Waylon Jennings' "I'll Go Back to Her" and the new song "Thinking About Leaving", which Yoakam wrote with Rodney Crowell. The cover of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" served as the album's lead single, peaking at 12 on the country charts and 64 on the Hot 100. It was also his final number one on the Canadian country music charts published by "RPM" before that publication closed in 2000. "Thinking About Leaving" was also issued as a single, but did not enter the country music top 40. In 2000, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam's tenure with Reprise Records ended with a pair of albums both released in 2000. The first was "dwightyoakamacoustic.net", composed entirely of acoustic recordings with just Yoakam's vocal and acoustic guitar. The only exception was a re-recording of "Guitars, Cadillacs", which Yoakam performed "a cappella". Yoakam said that he was inspired to do such an album due to the success of similar acoustic renditions in his concerts. He had originally planned to release the album through his website until representatives of Reprise Records thought the album had sales potential. The album itself had minimalistic packaging as well, consisting solely of a sticker with the album's name on the front of an otherwise-clear CD case. Steve Huey of AllMusic thought that the album's minimalism allowed a greater focus on Yoakam's vocal interpretation than previous albums.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: His other release in 2000 was "Tomorrow's Sounds Today". The album accounted for two charted singles in "What Do You Know About Love" and a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". Yoakam co-wrote with Buck Owens on three tracks: "The Sad Side of Town", "Alright, I'm Wrong", and "I Was There", the latter two of which were also recorded as duets with him. Although the two had previously sung together on "Streets of Bakersfield", Owens rejected further collaborations throughout the 1990s as he considered Yoakam "too young", but ultimately agreed to collaborate again when the two met at a concert in 1999. Writing for AllMusic, Hal Horowitz thought this song showed Yoakam's continued influence of the Bakersfield sound of which Owens was a part. He also praised the guitar work of Pete Anderson and compared Yoakam's lyrical style to that of Hank Williams. Scherman was less favorable, considering the material "forgettable" despite describing Anderson's guitar work with favor. Yoakam received his final CMA nomination in 2001, when that institution nominated "Alright, I'm Wrong" for Vocal Event of the Year. At the end of his contract with Reprise, parent company Warner Records issued a box set album titled "Reprise, Please, Baby: The Warner Bros. Years". The package consisted of 89 tracks from Yoakam's Reprise catalog, including previously-unreleased songs and early demos. Also included was a duet with Kelly Willis on a cover of George Jones and Tammy Wynette's "Golden Ring".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam spent much of 2001 and 2002 touring with Brooks & Dunn. He also founded a new record label called Electrodisc after his contract with Reprise expired. The label partnered with Audium Records (now MNRK Music Group) for distribution. His first Audium release was 2003's "Population Me". This album charted two singles, both of which were covers: Gregg Henry's "The Back of Your Hand" and Mike Stinson's "The Late Great Golden State". Also covered on this album was Burt Bacharach's "Trains and Boats and Planes". Timothy B. Schmit provided backing vocals on "The Late Great Golden State", while Willie Nelson sang duet vocals on "If Teardrops Were Diamonds". Jurek found influences of Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Chuck Berry in the album's sound. Messinger wrote of the album that "the complex, innovative sound he and Anderson have developed certainly merits repeated exploration."


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Between 2003 and 2004, Yoakam released three more compilations of covers albums to fulfill contractual obligations with his labels. The first was 2003's "In Others' Words" on Reprise. This consisted entirely of cover songs mostly from movie soundtracks and tribute albums to which Yoakam contributed. The oldest track was a cover of the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'", which Yoakam cut in 1991. Jurek wrote that the compilation was "far from a stellar set but does fill in the gaps nicely." Rhino Records released a greatest-hits package titled "The Very Best of Dwight Yoakam" in 2004. This compilation was certified gold after its release. Erlewine thought that while the album did not contain many of his earlier songs, it otherwise showed the range of his styles and would have potential appeal to fans who preferred his more rock-influenced cuts such as the covers of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "I Want You to Want Me". His third and final compilation was "Dwight's Used Records" on Audium also in 2004. Among the collaborators on this project were Heather Myles, Deana Carter, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Artists covered included John Prine's "Paradise", ZZ Top's "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide", and Johnny Cash's "Understand Your Man". Country Standard Time writer Eli Messinger thought that, by drawing from a decade's worth of material, the album showed new variety in Yoakam's style over his traditional studio albums.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: In 2005, Yoakam signed with New West Records, an Americana music label based out of California. His first release for the label was 2005's "Blame the Vain". It was also Yoakam's first credit as a producer, as he had ended his relationship with Pete Anderson in 2004. At the time, former RCA Records artist Keith Gattis had taken over as Yoakam's guitarist and bandleader. Yoakam said that he had contacted a number of producers until Gattis encouraged him to produce by himself. New West partnered with Columbia Records to release two singles to radio. These were "Intentional Heartache" and the title track, which both made the lower regions of the country charts in 2005 and accounted for Yoakam's last appearance there. In the book "Dwight Yoakam: A Thousand Miles from Nowhere", Don McLeese thought that Anderson's absence gave the album "an unbridled lack of restraint", citing the hard rock sound and spoken-word coda of "Intentional Heartache" as examples. Ray Waddell of "Billboard" also noted a "hard-charging" sound to the album, comparing various tracks to Elvis Presley. Rhino Records re-issued "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc, Etc." in 2006 to honor the album's 20th anniversary. This re-issue included previously unreleased demos and live tracks, along with liner notes written by Yoakam.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: After Buck Owens' death in 2006, Yoakam began performing covers of Buck Owens songs in concert. This culminated in his 2007 album "Dwight Sings Buck", composed entirely of Buck Owens covers. Yoakam recorded the project with his touring band, which at the time included then-former Mavericks member Eddie Perez on lead guitar. Yoakam stated that he and the band listened to Owens' originals to draw inspiration from the recordings. Among the songs chosen were "Act Naturally", "Crying Time", and "Close Up the Honky Tonks", the last of which served as the lead single. A review in AllMusic was favorable, stating that "He doesn't set out to imitate Owens' style or delivery, but he does capture the essence of each song, playing them as Buck intended: no frills, no foolin' around".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam performed at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2008, where he was joined by Faith Hill. This was Yoakam's first appearance at the event in over 20 years. He otherwise performed very few concerts in 2009 and 2010, citing the Great Recession and the rise of digital music distribution as a reason behind the slower pace of his career at the time. Despite this, he still stated that he planned to continue releasing albums. In July 2011, he re-signed with Warner for his next album, 2012's "3 Pears". The album included production from rock musician Beck on two tracks. Upon release it became his highest entry on the "Billboard" 200 albums chart, reaching number 18. Mikael Wood of the "Los Angeles Times" thought the album displayed a "softer side" than Yoakam's previous efforts. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote of the album, "Yoakam has surprised by digging deeper into every one of his obsessions, creating a record that captures the careening, adventurous spirit of the '60s without ever feeling doggedly retro. It's as fresh as any music he's ever made, and one of his very best albums."


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: His next Warner album was 2015's "Second Hand Heart". It reached the number two position on Top Country Albums after its release, his highest peak on that chart since "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room" in 1988. It consisted almost entirely of original songs written by Yoakam, except a cover of the standard "Man of Constant Sorrow" and Anthony Crawford's "V's of Birds". Erlewine found influences of The Beatles, Buck Owens, and cowpunk in the album's arrangements. Ann Powers of NPR's First Listen shared a similar opinion of the album, also praising the "brightness" of its sound.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: In 2016 Yoakam was contacted by a label executive of Sugar Hill Records, who wanted him to record a bluegrass music album for them. This album, "Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars...", was released that same year. It mostly comprises re-recordings of previous songs in his career, including "Guitars, Cadillacs" and "Please, Please Baby". Yoakam co-produced with Jon Randall and Gary Paczosa. The album included musical accompaniment by Alison Krauss & Union Station members Adam Steffey and Barry Bales on mandolin and upright bass respectively. Also contributing were guitarist Bryan Sutton, fiddler Stuart Duncan, and banjoist Scott Vestal. In addition to his own material, Yoakam covered Prince's "Purple Rain". Yoakam chose to cover the song the day Prince died, as he had seen the news of the musician's death on television prior to recording. Chuck Dauphin of Sounds Like Nashville thought the album brought out the bluegrass influences already present in such songs as "What I Don't Know". Deming called the album "a stylistic detour for Dwight Yoakam, but its execution sums up many of his greatest strengths as an artist". Also in 2016, Yoakam released covers of The Monkees' "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" and Johnny Rivers' "Mountain of Love" on limited edition vinyl through Third Man Records, a label owned by Jack White.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Although he has not released any albums since 2016, Yoakam has continued to tour and perform. In 2017, Yoakam covered "Wichita Lineman" at a tribute ceremony to songwriter Jimmy Webb held at Carnegie Hall. In 2018, Yoakam was selected by SiriusXM satellite radio to curate his own show, Bakersfield Beat, on that company's Prime Country channel. The success of this led to Yoakam receiving his own channel also named Bakersfield Beat, in which he plays his own songs as well as those in the genres of Bakersfield sound, cowpunk, and country rock.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: In 2022, he started the LSD Tour with Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle. He also performed a concert with Old Crow Medicine Show in 2022 to honor the 30th anniversary of "Hillbilly Deluxe".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam holds several acting roles in both film and television. One of his first was a recurring role in the 1991 CBS crime drama "P.S. I Luv U". He also had a role in the 1993 movie "Red Rock West". In 1996, actor-director Billy Bob Thornton cast Yoakam as the character Doyle Hargraves in the film "Sling Blade". Yoakam had been recommended the role by his manager, and told the website Country Daily in 2016 that "Sling Blade" was the first role in his acting career which he thought would have a lasting impact. Yoakam and the rest of the film's cast were nominated in 1997 for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He appeared in the 1998 Richard Linklater film "The Newton Boys", and wrote most of the songs for his album "A Long Way Home" at this film's shooting locations throughout Austin, Texas. In 1999, Yoakam and Sheryl Crow appeared in the thriller "The Minus Man".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: A year later he co-wrote, directed, and starred in a Western film titled "South of Heaven, West of Hell". He also composed a soundtrack of the same name. The movie was a financial failure, leading to many of its crew members filing claims against Yoakam in small claims court. In addition, Yoakam fired Pete Anderson from his touring band in 2002 as a means of recouping the finances lost by this movie. Zac Johnson of AllMusic criticized the soundtrack for including snippets of film dialogue between tracks, although he praised the individual songs and their inclusion of collaborators such as Bekka Bramlett, Mick Jagger, and Billy Gibbons.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: In 2002, Yoakam had a role in the David Fincher movie "Panic Room". Before the movie's release, he told the Associated Press that he did not consider acting significantly different from recording music because both roles were "fragmented" and required "repetition of performance". Between 2005 and 2006, he also appeared in the movies "Bandidas", "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", and "Wedding Crashers". In 2014, Yoakam had a recurring role in season two of the CBS science fiction series "Under the Dome". He also reunited with Thornton for season one of the Amazon Prime Video original series "Goliath".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam's style is defined by a variety of influences both inside and outside country music. These influences include rockabilly, honky-tonk, neotraditional country, Bakersfield sound, and country rock. Colin Larkin wrote in "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music" that Yoakam's music showed influences of "the honky-tonk country music of Buck Owens and Lefty Frizzell" and "a distinct antipathy toward the Nashville pop/country scene." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated that "With his stripped-down approach to traditional honky tonk and Bakersfield country, Dwight Yoakam helped return country music to its roots in the late '80s." Erlewine also noted that Yoakam's fanbase typically consisted of people who listened to roots rock and rock and roll. Thom Jurek of AllMusic thought that Pete Anderson's electric guitar work was also an important part of his sound, comparing such work to Don Rich of Buck Owens' backing band The Buckaroos. Jurek also thought that the prominent uses of electric guitar and Hammond organ were examples of Yoakam's rock influences.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam describes his own songwriting style as "fragmented". He told Al Caudell of "American Songwriter" that he usually wrote songs by coming up with a melody and then determining the intended mood. From there, he said he would come up with a "thesis" for the song. He also stated that he preferred not to write in a linear fashion, as he thought writing a song in one sitting would cause him to feel creatively burnt out. He also said that memories of his childhood were influential in his songwriting style, particularly in the bluegrass music to which he listened; he told "American Songwriter" that he enjoyed the "irony that's always been part of bluegrass in that it sets melodic, lilting melodies and upbeat tempos with the most tragic lyrics."


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Cyndi Hoelzle of "Gavin Report" noted Yoakam's appeal outside traditional country music, stating in 1993 that "[h]is records sold across the board-to middle-aged Stonewall Jackson fans and to young punk rockers who'd seen Dwight do his thing in L.A., opening shows for Los Lobos and the Violent Femmes." Richard Cromelin of "The Los Angeles Times" noted that Yoakam's musical image was that of a "brooding, intensely private figure driven by restless ambition and an edgy intellectuality more commonly found in rock stars." In the same article, Yoakam stated that "I found out early that one of the ways I was able to make contact was through musical expression." Similarly, he told "Gavin Report" in 1993 that "My nature is to be absolutely dissectively analytic. But with songwriting I have to leave it in a place that's not." Al Caudell of "American Songwriter" called Yoakam "a bluntly outspoken advocate of hardcore honky-tonk music". Yoakam received negative attention from the Nashville music scene early in his career due to his constant criticism of the genre. Among his critcisms were Columbia Records dropping Johnny Cash and MTV refusing to play country music videos. Of these criticisms, he later stated that "I learned a couple albums in... that my opinions and observations on the industry were not pertinent to what I needed to do as an artist, so I just really began to focus solely on what I was doing at the time."


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Yoakam's musical image is also defined by his typical outfits when onstage. Colin Larkin of "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music" wrote that "like Don Williams and others, he retains the traditional Stetson hat." Alanna Nash wrote in a review of "If There Was a Way" that "When Dwight Yoakam first came on the scene, with his hip retro-attitude, concha-studded jeans, and music that often grazed the edge of rock & roll, it was hard to tell whether the California cowboy was for real. The verdict was clear by his third album, "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room", whose key cycle of songs is a classic murder tale that echoes the pride, heartbreak, betrayal, and vengeance of the age-old hillbilly experience." Al Caudell of "American Songwriter" noted that Yoakam frequently wore "ripped jeans". Darryl Smyers of the "Dallas Observer" wrote that "With his absurdly large hat and Flying Burrito Brothers fashion sense, Yoakam was championed by a surprising mix of punks, rockabilly hounds, and hard-core honky-tonkers."


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Leonard Running of the "Rapid City Journal" referred to Yoakam's singing style as a "plaintive, yodel-edged voice". An uncredited review of "Gone" in "No Depression" stated, "His voice is pure and sweet, but a precise tool. Only rarely, like on 'Try Not to Look So Pretty'...does it really fall down into an emotional fit." J. D. Considine of "The Baltimore Sun" wrote of Yoakam's singing voice that it was a "high, lonesome twang" and a "sweetly nasal tenor". Similarly, the editors of "The Encyclopedia of Country Music" described Yoakam as having a "twangy tenor... simply too spellbinding for country radio to ignore." These editors also thought that Yoakam was more able to break through into mainstream country music than contemporaries such as Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle because "mainstream country has found it easier to digest distorted guitars than ironic lyrics".


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: In 1992, Yoakam began dating actress Sharon Stone. He appeared alongside her at that year's Academy Awards ceremony. This encounter led to both of them receiving media attention from tabloids, along with rumors from fans that songs on "This Time" were about Stone. Yoakam denied these rumors and stated that the two only dated for five weeks. Yoakam met MTV personality Karen Duffy at a party in 1994 and began dating soon afterward. The two ended their relationship in 1996. Yoakam married Emily Joyce on May 4, 2020, in Santa Monica, California. Because their wedding occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, only ten guests were in attendance. The couple had their first child on August 16, 2020.


title: Dwight Yoakam

text: Longtime producer and guitarist Pete Anderson filed a lawsuit against him in 2004, stating that he had breached an oral contract by failing to perform a number of concert dates in mid-2002. The lawsuit claimed that by failing to perform these concerts, Yoakam had cost Anderson over $44,000 in salary. Yoakam and Anderson settled the lawsuit out of court, with the former stating that some of the financial issues stemming from these concerts were due to money lost in the commercial failure of "South of Heaven, West of Hell". This financial dispute also ended the two's musical partnership, with Anderson saying that Yoakam "didn't want [him] around anymore". Anderson told "Style Weekly" in 2011 that he still respected Yoakam's artistry but had no intention of working with him again. Yoakam filed a lawsuit against Warner Music in 2021 when the label withdrew several of his songs from streaming services due to expiration of contract. He claimed that the label was denying his reclamation of copyright toward the songs. The dispute was resolved in February 2022 and the songs re-appeared on streaming services soon afterward.


The 1932 United States presidential election was the 37th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1932. The election took place against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover was defeated in a landslide by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Governor of New York and the vice presidential nominee of the 1920 presidential election. Roosevelt was the first Democrat in 80 years to simultaneously win an outright majority of the electoral college and popular vote, a feat last accomplished by Franklin Pierce in 1852, as well as the first Democrat in 50 years to win a majority of the popular vote, which was last done by Samuel J. Tilden in 1876. Hoover was the last incumbent president to lose an election to another term until Gerald Ford lost 44 years later. The election marked the effective end of the Fourth Party System, which had been dominated by Republicans.


title: 1932 United States presidential election

text: Despite disastrous economic conditions due to the Great Depression, Hoover faced little opposition at the 1932 Republican National Convention. Roosevelt was widely considered the front-runner at the start of the 1932 Democratic National Convention, but was not able to clinch the nomination until the fourth ballot of the convention. The Democratic convention chose a leading Southern Democrat, Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas, as the party's vice presidential nominee. Roosevelt united the party, campaigning on the failures of the Hoover administration. He promised recovery with a "New Deal" for the American people.


text: Roosevelt won by a landslide in both the electoral and popular votes, carrying every state outside of the Northeast and receiving the highest percentage of the popular vote of any Democratic nominee up to that time. Hoover had won over 58% of the popular vote in the 1928 presidential election, but his share of the popular vote declined to 39.6% in 1932. Socialist Party nominee Norman Thomas won 2.2% of the popular vote. Subsequent Democratic landslides in the 1934 mid-term elections and the 1936 presidential election confirmed the commencement of the Fifth Party System, which was dominated by Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition. Roosevelt's election ended the era of Republican dominance in presidential politics that lasted from the beginning of the Civil War in 1860 to the middle of the Great Depression in 1932.


text: Republican nominee Herbert Hoover had won in the 1928 presidential election against Democratic nominee Al Smith. Smith had lost the support of the Solid South during the campaign. Hoover had won in a landslide with him winning forty of the forty-eight states giving him 444 electoral votes against Smith's 87. However, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression weakened the power of the Republicans. In the 1930 elections the Democrats gain control of the United States House of Representatives, reduced the Republican majority in the United States Senate to one, and won a majority of the governorships.


text: Smith was the first Democratic nominee in the 20th century to win a majority of the twelve largest cities in the country. The net vote totals in the twelve largest cities shifted from Republican to Democratic with Harding having won 1,540,000 in 1920, Coolidge by 1,308,000 in 1924, while Smith won by 210,000. Samuel Lubell wrote in "The Future of American Politics" that Franklin D. Roosevelt's victory in the 1932 election was preceded by Smith's increased vote totals in urban areas.


text: Smith, who announced his candidacy on February 6, 1932, was a leading candidate as he had remained active in the party and retained his support from the 1928 campaign. Joseph Taylor Robinson, who had been Smith's vice-presidential running mate, announced that he would not be a candidate on March 31, 1932, and gave his support to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jesse I. Straus conducted a poll of the delegates to the 1928 Democratic National Convention which showed that the majority supported Roosevelt and additional polling showed Roosevelt winning in the primary and general election. Representative Edgar Howard stated that "Nine out of ten men in nine out of ten states are for Roosevelt, and he will be the Democratic choice." Roosevelt announced his campaign on January 23, 1932.


text: William H. Murray ran in multiple primaries and won one delegate in the North Dakota primary, but failed to win in the Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, and West Virginia primaries. He won in the Ohio primary as he was the only candidate on the ballot, but the delegates were instructed by the convention and not the primary. The Oklahoma convention selected to give him control of its twenty-two member delegation.


text: Newton D. Baker declined to run in the primaries and instead planned on serving as a compromise candidate if neither Smith nor Roosevelt could win the nomination at the convention balloting. J. Hamilton Lewis won the presidential primary in Illinois on April 12, 1932, and the state's fifty-eight member delegation was instructed to vote for him, but he withdrew before the convention on June 25. The majority of the Illinois delegation supported Melvin Alvah Traylor for the first three ballots before giving their support to Roosevelt on the fourth ballot. Tom Pendergast, a political boss in Missouri, had the state's delegation instructed to vote for James A. Reed, who had run for the nomination in the 1928 election, and the delegation supported Reed for the first three ballots before switching to Roosevelt. Harry F. Byrd and George White were favorite son candidates from their states. A. Harry Moore was a favorite son candidate supported by Lewis, but the delegation of his home state New Jersey voted for Smith.


text: Both Smith and Roosevelt were against Prohibition, but Smith supported making it a main issue during the campaign while Roosevelt did not. John J. Raskob, who had become the chair of the Democratic National Committee with Smith's support, attempted to have the committee make a statement against prohibition in March 1931, and Smith gave a speech in support of it. James Farley, the chair of the New York State Democratic Committee and later Roosevelt's presidential campaign manager, had the New York committee pass a resolution opposing declarations before the national convention was held. Other state parties supported this resolution causing the vote to not happen. Raskob proposed the declaration again on January 9, 1932, but had the committee not take action on it.


text: Tammany Hall and Roosevelt had a truce during his governorship, but the organization came to openly oppose him for his role in Mayor Jimmy Walker's resignation. Tammany Hall supported Smith for the nomination at the convention causing Roosevelt to refuse to support their mayoral candidate in the 1933 election and to support Fiorello La Guardia in the 1937 election. Tammany Hall's power was also reduced by the adoption of proportional representation for the New York City Council. Roosevelt also gave support to the American Labor Party in order for Democratic voters to support the New Deal without giving support to Tammany Hall candidates. Representative John J. O'Connor, who represented one of the districts with the strongest Tammany influence and was the chair of the House Rules Committee, lost renomination in the Democratic primary and in the general election with the Republican nomination in the 1938 election.


text: Smith's strategy against Roosevelt was to use favorite son candidates to control the delegations of their states in places that would have otherwise gone for Roosevelt. The majority of Smith's support came from the northeast while Roosevelt's support came from the south and west. Wilbur Lucius Cross, Joseph B. Ely, Frank Hague, J. Howard McGrath, Moore, Raskob, and Jouett Shouse were among Smith's campaign leaders. Roosevelt attempted to have some of the favorite son candidates withdraw using Homer Stille Cummings as a mediator, but he was unsuccessful.


text: Seventeen states used primaries to select their delegates to the national conventions while the rest used a convention system. Roosevelt controlled the delegations from thirty states and additional delegations from Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, and South Carolina had supporters of Roosevelt, but were uninstructed. Roosevelt was endorsed at the state convention in Mississippi, but the delegates were left uninstructed. Roosevelt also claimed that he had the support of the twenty-eight delegates from all of the territories. Smith controlled the delegates from four states. The remaining delegations were either uninstructed or under the control of favorite sons. Roosevelt failed to gain control of two-thirds of the delegates which was required for him to gain the nomination.


text: The convention was held in Chicago between June 27 and July 2. The first vote was taken at 4:28 on the morning of July 2, after ten hours of speeches that had begun at 5:00 on the previous afternoon. The Roosevelt delegations from Louisiana and Minnesota were seated giving Roosevelt an additional thirty-two votes. Thomas J. Walsh, an ally of Roosevelt, was elected to chair the convention against Shouse by a vote of 626 to 528. Roosevelt received the most votes on the first three ballots, but he still did not have a two-thirds majority.


text: John Nance Garner, who had the support of William Randolph Hearst, won in the California primary due to the support of the Texas State Society of California which had 100,000 members. Garner had the support of ninety delegates at the convention and Hearst created a compromise with Roosevelt. Roosevelt, who needed the support of the Californian and Texan delegations to gain a two-thirds majority, would receive the support of Garner's delegates in exchange for Garner being given the vice-presidential nomination. With this agreement, Garner's supporters in California and Texas were released by Sam Rayburn, Garner's campaign manager, and voted for Roosevelt on the fourth ballot, giving him the presidential nomination. Members of the Texas delegation who opposed Roosevelt were led by Amon G. Carter, but the Roosevelt supporters led by Thomas Whitfield Davidson won by a vote of 54 to 51. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island were the only states whose delegations did not support Roosevelt on the final ballot. Garner won the vice-presidential nomination on the first ballot against Matthew A. Tinley and his nomination was made unanimous.


text: In November 1931, Senator Hiram Johnson called for Hoover to retire as it would increase the chances of the Republicans winning in the 1932 election. Hoover's opponents in the Republican Party supported giving either former President Calvin Coolidge or Senator Dwight Morrow the party's presidential nomination. Morrow had been elected to the U.S. Senate from New Jersey in 1930, but died on October 5, 1931. On July 31, 1931, an article by James F. Coupal, Coolidge's former White House physician, was published by the "St. Paul Dispatch" in which Coupal stated that Coolidge would run "if the people of this country evince an unmistakable and unquestionable desire to draft him to pull the country out of this period of depression, and if he can have the presidency without any political or other obligations attached to it". Coolidge did not run for the nomination and an article written by him was published by "The Saturday Evening Post" on October 3, 1932, in which he gave his support to Hoover and was critical of those who had wanted him to run.


text: Charles G. Dawes was suggested as a candidate following Morrow's death and the unsuccessful attempt to draft Coolidge, but his selection as president of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation took him out of consideration. Progressive Republicans considered forming a third party, but William Borah, Johnson, George W. Norris, and Gifford Pinchot declined to lead such a movement. An attempt to have progressive leaders in multiple states run against Hoover failed and Borah stated that Hoover could not be defeated.


text: Hoover formally started his campaign by having Robert H. Lucas, executive director of the Republican National Committee, send out letters to precinct leaders in January 1931. Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown and Treasury Secretary Ogden L. Mills helped manage Hoover's campaign. Theodore Joslin started a publicity campaign to improve Hoover's image.


text: Joseph I. France, a member of the conservative faction, ran against Hoover in the primary, but only won in states where he was unopposed. These states also had no delegates bounded to their primaries leading to them sending pro-Hoover delegations. At the national convention Lawritz Bernhard Sandblast, a delegate from Oregon, nominated France, but France attempted to address the convention to withdraw his candidacy and instead nominate Coolidge. Hoover had him removed citing that he could not address the convention as he was not a delegate. Hoover, who was nominated by Joseph Scott, won renomination on the first ballot while France only received four delegates.


text: Dawes was proposed as a replacement for Vice President Charles Curtis, who faced opposition due to his age and prohibitionist stances, and delegations from over twenty states opposed the renomination of Curtis. However, Dawes declined to seek the vice-presidential nomination. Curtis, Alvan T. Fuller, James Harbord, Hanford MacNider, J. Leonard Replogle, and Bertrand Snell were nominated for the vice-presidential balloting. Curtis initially fell 19.25 votes short of winning on the first ballot, but the Pennsylvania delegation changed its support to Curtis causing him to win.


text: Norman Thomas, who had been the Socialist Party of America's presidential nominee in the 1928 election and ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1930 election, and James H. Maurer, who was the party's vice-presidential nominee in the 1928 election, were given the Socialist Party presidential and vice-presidential nominations at the national convention held May 21–24 in Milwaukee. Thomas and his faction unsuccessfully tried to have Morris Hillquit replaced as chair of the party by Daniel Hoan. The Literary Digest's polling predicted that Thomas would receive over two million votes.


text: William Z. Foster, who had been the Communist Party USA's presidential nominee in the 1928 election, was given the presidential nomination at the national convention held from May 28–29 in Chicago, and James W. Ford was given the vice-presidential nomination.


text: William David Upshaw, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was given the presidential nomination of the Prohibition Party with Frank S. Regan as his vice-presidential running mate at the party's national convention on July 7 in Indianapolis. The party had initially attempted to give the nomination to Idaho Senator William Edgar Borah.


text: The Liberty Party gave its nominations to William Hope Harvey of Arkansas for president and Frank Hemenway for vice president.


text: The Socialist Labor Party of America gave Verne L. Reynolds its presidential nomination and John W. Aiken its vice-presidential nomination at their national convention on April 30 in New York City.


text: Frank Webb and former Mayor Jacob S. Coxey Sr. were given the presidential and vice-presidential nominations of the Farmer–Labor Party at its convention on April 28 in Omaha, Nebraska. John R. Brinkley, Thomas Mooney, and Arthur C. Townley had also been proposed as candidates for the nomination. However, Webb was removed from the ticket with the party stating that he was "a tool of the Hoover administration," and Coxey was given the presidential nomination. The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party did not support the national party's ticket. After having the Farmer-Labor presidential nomination taken from him Webb formed the Liberty Party with him as its presidential nominee while the larger Liberty Party gave its nomination to William Hope Harvey.


text: Samuel Harden Church, who had formed the Liberal Party in Pennsylvania which received 366,572 votes on its ballot line in the 1930 gubernatorial election, unsuccessfully tried to form a national anti-prohibitionist Liberal Party. Nicholas Murray Butler proposed the creation of a new party on May 19, 1932, which would be composed of the moderate wings of both existing Democratic and Republican parties.


text: After making an airplane trip to the Democratic convention, Roosevelt accepted the nomination in person. In his speech, he stated, "ours must be a party of liberal thought, of planned action, of the enlightened international outlook, and of the greatest good to the greatest number of our citizens." Roosevelt's trip to Chicago was the first of several successful, precedent-making moves designed to make him appear to be the candidate of change in the election. Large crowds greeted Roosevelt as he traveled around the nation; his campaign song "Happy Days Are Here Again" became one of the most popular in American political history – and, indeed, the unofficial anthem of the Democratic Party. Democratic leaders in the eastern United States supported having Roosevelt conduct a front porch campaign, but Roosevelt and the leaders in the western United States instead supported an active campaign. Roosevelt gave twenty-seven major speeches during the campaign while Hoover initially planned on giving three major speeches during the campaign, but it was later increased to ten and Hoover traveled over 10,000 miles.


text: Simeon D. Fess, who had become chair of the Republican National Committee with Hoover's support, resigned from his position and was replaced by Everett Sanders with Hoover's support. Raskob, who became the chair of the Democratic National Convention with Smith's support, was replaced by Farley. Campaign expenditures for both parties fell from the 1928 election to the 1932 election. The combined expenditures of both national committees would be $5,146,027 which was less than $0.13 per voter. This was the lowest amount spent per voter since the 1912 election with most elections costing around $0.19-0.20 per voter and the 1924 presidential election costing $0.15 per voter.


text: Both parties spent large amounts on radio campaigns with 17-18% of Democratic and over 20% of the Republican national committees spending being towards radio. During the 1928 election the Republicans paid $420,000 to radio companies and increased their spending to $437,000 during the 1932 election. The Democrats reduced their spending with their amount falling from $550,000 during the 1928 election to $343,415 during the 1932 election.


text: During the campaign NBC and CBS aired 203 programs of paid time that took up 116 hours and 15 minutes. One hundred thirty-six of those programs were for the Republicans, seventy-one for the Democrats, and three for the Socialists. The Republicans had seventy hours and thirty-two minutes, the Democrats had forty-nine hours and thirty-two minutes, and the Socialists had forty-five minutes of air time.


text: Roosevelt made gains with voters compared to Smith's 1928 campaign. The southerners who had supported Hoover in the 1928 campaign returned to the Democratic Party and progressive Republicans under the leadership of Bronson M. Cutting, Johnson, Robert M. La Follette Jr., Norris, and Henry A. Wallace left the Republicans to support Roosevelt. Farley predicted that Roosevelt would win in forty-four states and later congratulated Sanders on his imagination and courage when Sanders predicted that Hoover would win 338 electoral votes.


text: After their divisive convention, Democrats united around Roosevelt, who was able to draw more universal support than Al Smith had in 1928. Roosevelt's Protestant background prevented the anti-Catholic attacks Smith faced in 1928, and The Depression seemed to be of much greater concern among the American public than previous cultural battles. Prohibition was increasingly unpopular, and wets offered the argument that states and localities needed the tax money. Hoover proposed a new constitutional amendment that was vague on particulars and satisfied neither side. Roosevelt's platform promised repeal of the 18th Amendment.


text: In contrast, Hoover was not supported by many of the more prominent Republicans and violently opposed by others, in particular by a number of senators who had fought him throughout his administration and whose national reputation made their opposition of considerable importance. Many prominent Republicans even went so far as to espouse the cause of the Democratic candidate openly.


text: Making matters worse for Hoover was the fact that many Americans blamed him for the Great Depression. The outrage caused by the deaths of veterans in the Bonus Army incident in the summer of 1932, combined with the catastrophic economic effects of Hoover's domestic policies, reduced his chances of a second term from slim to none. His attempts to campaign in public were a disaster, as he often had objects thrown at him or his vehicle as he rode through city streets. Hoover's unpopularity resulted in Roosevelt adopting a cautious campaign strategy, focused on minimizing gaffes and keeping public attention directed towards his opponent.


text: As Governor of New York, Roosevelt had garnered a reputation for promoting government help for the impoverished, providing a welcome contrast for many who saw Hoover as a do-nothing president. Roosevelt emphasized working collectively through an expanded federal government to confront the economic crisis, a contrast to Hoover's emphasis on individualism. During the campaign, Roosevelt ran on many of the programs that would later become part of the New Deal during his presidency. It was said that "even a vaguely talented dog-catcher could have been elected president against the Republicans." Hoover even received a letter from an Illinois man that advised, "Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous."


text: Roosevelt employed the radio to great effect during the campaign. He was able to outline his platform while also improving the perception of his personality. In March, 1932, "The New York Times" quoted radio producer John Carlile, who said that Roosevelt had a "tone of perfect sincerity," while for Hoover, "the microphone betrays deliberate effort in his radio voice." The technology not only allowed Roosevelt to reach far more voters than he could via in-person campaigning, but also drew attention away from his paralysis due to polio. Roosevelt took great pains to hide the effects of the disease from voters, instituting a "gentleman's agreement" with the press that he not be photographed in ways that would highlight his disability.


text: Roosevelt defeated Hoover in the election. Hoover became the seventh president to lose reelection after John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and William Howard Taft. Another president would not lose an election to another term until Gerald Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election. This was the first election since 1916 (16 years earlier) in which the Democratic candidate won.


text: Although the "other" vote (the combined vote total for candidates other than the nominees of the two major parties) of 1932 was three times that of 1928, it was considerably less than what had been recorded in 1920, the time of the greatest "other" vote, with the exception of the unusual conditions prevailing in 1912 and 1924.


text: Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate, received 22,817,883 votes (57.41%), the largest vote ever cast for a candidate for the Presidency up until that time, and over 1,425,000 more than that cast for Hoover four years earlier.


text: While Hoover had won a greater percentage of the vote in 1928 (as did Harding in 1920), the national swing of 17.59% to the Democrats impressed all who considered the distribution of the vote: more than one-sixth of the electorate had switched from supporting the Republicans to the Democrats. Only once before had there been a comparable shift, in 1920, when there was a 14.65% swing to the Republicans (while there had been a swing to the Democrats of 13.6% in 1912, this was from a three-candidate election).


text: Roosevelt improved on Smith's net vote total performance in the twelve largest cities. Smith had won those areas by 210,000 votes in the 1928 election while Roosevelt won by 1,791,000 votes. Roosevelt's worst performance in the country was in the eastern United States where all six of the states that voted for Hoover came from. Hoover only won in forty-five counties west of the Mississippi.


text: As of , the swing for the Democrats from Smith in 1928 to Roosevelt remains the largest national swing of the electorate between presidential elections in the history of the United States. The largest swing since came for the Democrats in 1976, when the swing from George McGovern in 1972 to Jimmy Carter was 12.61%.


text: 1932 was a political realignment election: not only did Roosevelt win a sweeping victory over Hoover, but Democrats significantly extended their control over the U.S. House, gaining 101 seats, and also gained 12 seats in the U.S. Senate to gain control of the chamber. Twelve years of Republican leadership came to an end, and 20 consecutive years of Democratic control of the White House began.


text: Until 1932, the Republicans had controlled the Presidency for 52 of the previous 72 years, dating back to Abraham Lincoln being elected president in 1860. After 1932, Democrats would control the Presidency for 28 of the next 36 years.


text: Roosevelt led the poll in 2,722 counties, the greatest number ever carried by a candidate up until that time. Of these, 282 had never before been Democratic. Only 374 remained loyally Republican. Half of the total vote of the nation was cast in just eight states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin); in these states, Hoover polled 8,592,163 votes. In one section (West South Central), the Republican percentage sank to 16.21%, but in no other section did the party poll less than 30% of the vote cast. However, the relative appeal of the two candidates in 1932 and the decline of the appeal of Hoover as compared with 1928 are shown in the fact that the Republican vote increased in 1932 in only 87 counties, while the Democratic vote increased in 3,003 counties. Herbert Hoover also failed to flip any counties.


text: The vote cast for Hoover, and the fact that in only one section of the nation (West South Central) did he have less than 500,000 votes and in only three states outside of the South less than 50,000 votes, made it clear that the nation remained a two-party electorate, and that everywhere, despite the overwhelming triumph of the Democrats, there was a party membership devoted to neither the new administration nor the proposals of the Socialist candidate who had polled 75% of the "other" vote (as well as the highest raw vote total of his campaigns).


text: This election marks the last time as of that a Republican presidential candidate won a majority of black and African-American votes: as New Deal policies took effect, the strong support of black voters for these programs began a transition from their traditional support for Republicans to providing solid majorities for Democrats.


text: The Roosevelt ticket swept every region of the country except the Northeast, and carried many reliable Republican states that had not been carried by the Democrats since their electoral landslide of 1912, when the Republican vote was split in two.


text: Michigan voted Democratic for the first time since the emergence of the Republican Party in 1854, and Minnesota was carried by a Democrat for the first time since its admission to statehood in 1858, leaving Vermont as the only remaining state never to be carried by a Democratic candidate (which it would not be until 1964).


text: In contrast to the state's solid support of Republicans prior to this election, Minnesota has continued supporting Democrats in every presidential election but three since 1932 (the exceptions were in 1952, 1956, and 1972).


text: Roosevelt's victory with 472 electoral votes stood until the 1964 victory of Lyndon B. Johnson, who won 486 electoral votes in 1964, as the most ever won by a first-time contestant in a presidential election. Roosevelt also bettered the national record of 444 electoral votes set by Hoover only four years earlier, but would shatter his own record when he was re-elected in 1936 with 523 votes.


text: This was the last election in which Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania voted Republican until 1948.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: The Alaska Purchase () was the United States' acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire. Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867, through a treaty ratified by the United States Senate.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Russia had established a presence in North America during the first half of the 18th century, but few Russians ever settled in Alaska. In the aftermath of the Crimean War, Russian Tsar Alexander II began exploring the possibility of selling Alaska, which would be difficult to defend in any future war from being conquered by Russia's archrival, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the end of the American Civil War, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward entered into negotiations with Russian minister Eduard de Stoeckl for the purchase of Alaska. Seward and Stoeckl agreed to a treaty on March 30, 1867, and the treaty was ratified by the United States Senate by a wide margin.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: The purchase added of new territory to the United States for the cost of $7.2 million 1867 dollars. In modern terms, the cost was equivalent to $ million in dollars or $ per acre. Reactions to the purchase in the United States were mostly positive, as many believed possession of Alaska would serve as a base to expand American trade in Asia. Some opponents labeled the purchase as "Seward's Folly", or "Seward's Icebox", as they contended that the United States had acquired useless land. Nearly all Russian settlers left Alaska in the aftermath of the purchase; Alaska would remain sparsely populated until the Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska, the area was renamed the District of Alaska (1884) and the Alaska Territory (1912) before becoming the modern State of Alaska in 1959.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Russian America was settled by "promyshlenniki", merchants and fur trappers who expanded through Siberia. They arrived in Alaska in 1732, and in 1799 the Russian-American Company (RAC) received a charter to hunt for fur. No colony was established, but the Russian Orthodox Church sent missionaries to the natives and built churches. About 700 Russians enforced sovereignty in a territory over twice as large as Texas. In 1821, Tsar Alexander I issued an edict declaring Russia's sovereignty over the North American Pacific coast north of the 51st parallel north. The edict also forbade foreign ships to approach within 100 Italian miles (115 miles or 185 km) of the Russian claim. US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams strongly protested the edict, which potentially threatened both the commerce and expansionary ambitions of the United States. Seeking favorable relations with the U.S., Alexander agreed to the Russo-American Treaty of 1824. In the treaty, Russia limited its claims to lands north of parallel 54°40′ north, and also agreed to open Russian ports to U.S. ships.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: By the 1850s a population of once 300,000 sea otters was almost extinct, and Russia needed money after being defeated by France and Britain in the Crimean War. The California Gold Rush showed that if gold were discovered in Alaska, Americans and British Canadians would overwhelm the Russian presence in what one scholar later described as "Siberia's Siberia". However, the principal reason for the sale is that the hard-to-defend colony would be easily conquered by British forces based in neighboring Canada in any future conflict, and Russia did not wish to see its archrival being next door just across the Bering Sea. Therefore, Emperor Alexander II decided to sell the territory. The Russian government discussed the proposal in 1857 and 1858, and offered to sell the territory to the United States, hoping that its presence in the region would offset the plans of Britain. However, no deal was reached, as the risk of an American Civil War was a more pressing concern in Washington.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Grand Duke Konstantin, a younger brother of the Tsar, began to press for the handover of Russian America to the United States in 1857. In a memorandum to Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov he stated that


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Konstantin's letter was shown to his brother, Tsar Alexander II, who wrote "this idea is worth considering" on the front page. Supporters of Konstantin's proposal to immediately withdraw from North America included Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin and the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl. Gorchakov agreed with the necessity of abandoning Russian America but argued for a gradual process leading to its sale. He found a supporter in the naval minister and former chief manager of the Russian-American Company, Ferdinand von Wrangel. Wrangel pressed for some proceeds to be invested in the economic development of Kamchatka and the Amur Basin. The Emperor eventually sided with Gorchakov, deciding to postpone negotiations until the end of the RAC's patent, set to expire in 1861.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Over the winter of 1859–1860, Stoeckl held meetings with United States officials, though he had been instructed not to initiate discussions about the sale of the RAC assets. Communicating primarily with Assistant Secretary of State John Appleton and California Senator William M. Gwin, Stoeckl reported the interest expressed by the Americans in acquiring Russian America. While President James Buchanan kept these hearings informal, preparations were made for further negotiations. Stoeckl reported a conversation in which he asked "in passing" what price the U.S. government might pay for the Russian colony and Senator Gwin replied that they "might go as far as $5,000,000", a figure Gorchakov found far too low. Stoeckl informed Appleton and Gwin of this, the latter saying that his Congressional colleagues in Oregon and California would support a larger figure. Buchanan's increasingly unpopular presidency forced the matter to be shelved until a new presidential election. With the oncoming American Civil War, Stoeckl proposed a renewal of the RAC's charter. Two of its ports were to be open to foreign traders and commercial agreements with Peru and Chile to be signed to give "a fresh jolt" to the company.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Russia continued to see an opportunity to weaken British power by causing British Columbia, including the Royal Navy base at Esquimalt, to be surrounded or annexed by American territory. Following the Union victory in the Civil War in 1865, the Tsar instructed Stoeckl to re-enter into negotiations with William H. Seward in the beginning of March 1867. President Andrew Johnson was busy with negotiations about Reconstruction, and Seward had alienated a number of Republicans, so both men believed that the purchase would help divert attention from the domestic issues. The negotiations concluded after an all-night session with the signing of the treaty at 04:00 on March 30, 1867, with the purchase price set at $7.2 million ($ million in ), or about 2 cents per acre ($4.74/km).


title: Alaska Purchase

text: The name "Alaska" was chosen by the Americans, from an Aleut word, "alashka" or "alaesksu", meaning "great land" or "mainland". In the Russian era, the name had been used for the Alaska Peninsula, which the Russians had called "Alyaska" ("Аляска") or "Alyeska".


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Seward and many other Americans believed that Asia would become an important market for the country's products, and expected that Alaska would serve as a base for American trade with Asia and globally and for American power in the Pacific. While agreeing with Seward about the benefit to trade, Senator Charles Sumner was unusual in expecting that the territory would be valuable on its own; having studied the records of explorers, he believed that it contained valuable animals and forests. He compared the acquisition to contemporary European colonialism, such as the French conquest of Algeria. As chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, he sponsored the bill to acquire the territory. Seward told the nation that the Russians estimated that Alaska contained about 2,500 Russians and those of mixed race (that is, a Russian father and native mother), and 8,000 indigenous people, in all about 10,000 people under the direct government of the Russian fur company, and possibly 50,000 Inuit and Alaska Natives living outside its jurisdiction. The Russians were settled at 23 trading posts, placed at accessible islands and coastal points. At smaller stations, only four or five Russians were stationed to collect furs from the natives for storage and shipment when the company's boats arrived to take it away. There were two larger towns. New Archangel, now named Sitka, had been established in 1804 to handle the valuable trade in the skins of the sea otter and in 1867 contained 116 small log cabins with 968 residents. St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands had 100 homes and 283 people and was the center of the seal fur industry. The treaty passed the United States Senate with 37 votes for versus 2 opposed.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Many Americans believed in 1867 that the purchase process had been corrupt, but W. H. Dall in 1872 wrote that, "there can be no doubt that the feelings of a majority of the citizens of the United States are in favor of it." The notion that the purchase was unpopular among Americans is, a scholar wrote 120 years later, "one of the strongest historical myths in American history. It persists despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, and the efforts of the best historians to dispel it", likely in part because it fits American and Alaskan writers' view of the territory as distinct and filled with self-reliant pioneers.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: A majority of newspapers supported the purchase or were neutral. A review of dozens of contemporary newspapers found general support for the purchase, especially in California; most of 48 major newspapers supported the purchase. Public opinion was not universally positive; to some the purchase was known as "Seward's folly", "Walrussia", or "Seward's icebox". Editorials contended that taxpayer money had been wasted on a "Polar bear garden". Nonetheless, most newspaper editors argued that the U.S. would probably derive great economic benefits from the purchase; friendship with Russia was important; and it would facilitate the acquisition of British Columbia. Forty-five percent of supportive newspapers cited the increased potential for annexing British Columbia in their support, and "The New York Times" stated that, consistent with Seward's reason, Alaska would increase American trade with East Asia.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: The principal urban newspaper that opposed the purchase was the "New York Tribune", published by Seward opponent Horace Greeley. The ongoing controversy over Reconstruction spread to other acts, such as the Alaska purchase. Some opposed the United States obtaining its first non-contiguous territory, seeing it as a colony; others saw no need to pay for land that they expected the country to obtain through manifest destiny. Historian Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer summarized the minority opinion of some American newspaper editors who opposed the purchase:


title: Alaska Purchase

text: The transfer ceremony took place in Sitka on October 18, 1867. Russian and American soldiers paraded in front of the governor's house; the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag raised amid peals of artillery.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: A description of the events was published in Finland six years later. It was written by a blacksmith named Thomas Ahllund, who had been recruited to work in Sitka:


title: Alaska Purchase

text: After the flag transition was completed, Captain of 2nd Rank Aleksei Alekseyevich Peshchurov said, "General Rousseau, by authority from His Majesty, the Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the territory of Alaska." General Lovell Rousseau accepted the territory. (Peshchurov had been sent to Sitka as commissioner of the Russian government in the transfer of Alaska.) A number of forts, blockhouses and timber buildings were handed over to the Americans. The troops occupied the barracks; General Jefferson C. Davis established his residence in the governor's house, and most of the Russian citizens went home, leaving a few traders and priests who chose to remain.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: After the transfer, a number of Russian citizens remained in Sitka, but nearly all of them very soon decided to return to Russia, which was still possible at the expense of the Russian-American Company. Ahllund's story "corroborates other accounts of the transfer ceremony, and the dismay felt by many of the Russians and creoles, jobless and in want, at the rowdy troops and gun-toting civilians who looked on Sitka as merely one more western frontier settlement." Ahllund gives a vivid account of what life was like for civilians in Sitka under US rule and helps to explain why hardly any Russian subject wanted to stay there. Moreover, Ahllund's article is the only known description of the return voyage on the "Winged Arrow", a ship that was specially purchased to transport the Russians back to their native country. "The over-crowded vessel, with crewmen who got roaring drunk at every port, must have made the voyage a memorable one." Ahllund mentions stops at the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, Tahiti, Brazil, London, and finally Kronstadt, the port for St. Petersburg, where they arrived on August 28, 1869.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: American settlers who shared Sumner's belief in the riches of Alaska rushed to the territory but found that much capital was required to exploit its resources, many of which were also found closer to markets in the contiguous United States. Most soon left, and by 1873, Sitka's population had declined from about 2,500 to a few hundred. The United States acquired an area over twice as large as Texas, but it was not until the great Klondike gold strike in 1896 that Alaska generally came to be seen as a valuable addition to American territory.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: The seal fishery was one of the chief considerations that induced the United States to purchase Alaska. It provided considerable revenue by the lease of the privilege of taking seals, an amount that was actually more than the price paid for Alaska. From 1870 to 1890, the seal fisheries yielded 100,000 skins a year. The company to which the administration of the fisheries was entrusted by a lease from the US government paid a rental of $50,000 per annum and in addition thereto $2.62½ per skin for the total number taken. The skins were transported to London to be dressed and prepared for world markets. The business grew so large that the earnings of English laborers after the acquisition of Alaska by the United States amounted by 1890 to $12,000,000.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: However, exclusive US control of this resource was eventually challenged, and the Bering Sea Controversy resulted when the United States seized over 150 sealing ships flying the British flag, based out of the coast of British Columbia. The conflict between the United States and Britain was resolved by an arbitration tribunal in 1893. The waters of the Bering Sea were deemed to be international waters, contrary to the US contention that they were an internal sea. The US was required to make a payment to Britain, and both nations were required to follow regulations developed to preserve the resource.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: The purchase of Alaska has been referenced as a "bargain basement deal" and as the principal positive accomplishment of the presidency of Andrew Johnson.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Economist David R. Barker has argued that the US federal government has not earned a positive financial return on the purchase of Alaska. According to Barker, tax revenue and mineral and energy royalties to the federal government have been less than federal costs of governing Alaska plus interest on the borrowed funds used for the purchase.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: John M. Miller has taken the argument further by contending that US oil companies that developed Alaskan petroleum resources did not earn enough profits to compensate for the risks that they incurred.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Other economists and scholars, including Scott Goldsmith and Terrence Cole, have criticized the metrics used to reach those conclusions by noting that most contiguous Western states would fail to meet the bar of "positive financial return" using the same criteria and by contending that looking at the increase in net national income, instead of only US Treasury revenue, would paint a much more accurate picture of the financial return of Alaska as an investment.


title: Alaska Purchase

text: Alaska Day celebrates the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States, which took place on October 18, 1867. The date is by the Gregorian calendar and a clock time 9:01:20 behind Greenwich, which came into effect in Alaska the following day to replace the Julian calendar, which was used by the Russians (the Julian calendar in the 19th century was 12 days behind the Gregorian calendar), and a clock time 14:58:40 ahead of Greenwich. Alaska Day is a holiday for all state workers.


title: American Indian Wars

text: The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settlers, against various American Indian and First Nation tribes. These conflicts occurred in North America from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the early 20th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for lands that the Indian tribes considered their own. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.


title: American Indian Wars

text: As settlers spread westward across North America after 1780, armed conflicts increased in size, duration, and intensity between settlers and various Indian and First Nation tribes. The climax came in the War of 1812, when major Indian coalitions in the Midwest and the South fought against the United States and lost. Conflict with settlers became less common and was usually resolved by treaties between the federal government and specific tribes. The treaties often required the tribes to sell or surrender land to the United States. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the American government to force Indian tribes to move from east of the Mississippi River to the west on the American frontier, especially to Indian Territory which became Oklahoma. As American settlers expanded their settlement onto the Great Plains and the Western United States and Canada, the nomadic and semi-nomadic Indian tribes of those regions were forced to relocate to reservations.


title: American Indian Wars

text: Indian tribes and coalitions often won battles with the encroaching settlers and soldiers, but their numbers were too few and their resources too limited to win more than temporary victories and concessions from the U.S. government. Indian wars in Canada were much less frequent than in the United States.


title: American Indian Wars

text: The colonization of North America by English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Swedish was resisted by some Indian tribes and assisted by other tribes. Wars and other armed conflicts in the 17th and 18th centuries included:


title: American Indian Wars

text: In several instances, the conflicts were a reflection of European rivalries, with Indian tribes splitting their alliances among the powers, generally siding with their trading partners. Various tribes fought on each side in King William's War, Queen Anne's War, Dummer's War, King George's War, and the French and Indian War, allying with British or French colonists according to their own self interests.


title: American Indian Wars

text: British merchants and government agents began supplying weapons to Indians living in the United States following the Revolution (1783–1812) in the hope that, if a war broke out, they would fight on the British side. The British further planned to set up an Indian nation in the Ohio-Wisconsin area to block further American expansion. The US protested and declared war in 1812. Most Indian tribes supported the British, especially those allied with Tecumseh, but they were ultimately defeated by General William Henry Harrison. The War of 1812 spread to Indian rivalries, as well.


title: American Indian Wars

text: Many refugees from defeated tribes went over the border to Canada; those in the South went to Florida while it was under Spanish control as they would be considered free, not slaves, under the Viceroyalty of New Spain. During the early 19th century, the federal government was under pressure by settlers in many regions to expel Indians from their areas. The Indian Removal Act of 1830, "authorizing the President to grant lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders." Some tribes resisted relocation fiercely, most notably the Seminoles in a series of wars in Florida. They were never defeated, although some Seminoles migrated to Indian Territory. Other tribes were forced to move to reservations west of the Mississippi River, most famously the Cherokee whose relocation was called the "Trail of Tears".


title: American Indian Wars

text: The American Revolutionary War was essentially two parallel wars for the American Patriots. The war in the east was a struggle against British rule, while the war in the west was an "Indian War". The newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for control of the territory east of the Mississippi River. Some Indians sided with the British, as they hoped to reduce American settlement and expansion. In one writer's opinion, the Revolutionary War was "the most extensive and destructive" Indian war in United States history.