LEE, R(oy) Alton 1931-

PERSONAL: Born May 24, 1931, in White City, KS; son of Ralph A. (a farmer) and Alice (Butts) Lee; married Marilyn J. Kurzava, October 19, 1963; children: Michael Alton (deceased), Edward Alan, Deborah Ann. Education: Kansas State Teachers College, B.S., 1955, M.S., 1958; University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1962. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—976 Crestview, Vermillion, SD 57069. Office—Department of History, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069.

CAREER: Central State College (now University), Edmond, OK, 1961-66, began as assistant professor, became associate professor of history; University of South Dakota, Vermillion, associate professor, 1966-70, from professor of history to professor emeritus, 1970—, chair of department, 1970-73.

MEMBER: Organization of American Historians, Phi Alpha Theta.

AWARDS, HONORS: Harry S. Truman Library research grant, 1961.

WRITINGS:

Pasquale Paoli: Fighter for Freedom, Kansas State Teachers College (Emporia, KS), 1961.

Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate, University of Kentucky Press (Lexington, KY), 1966.

A History of Regulatory Taxation, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1973.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier and Statesman, Nelson-Hall (Chicago, IL), 1981.

(Editor, with Archie P. McDonald and Donald W. Whisenhunt) Encyclopedia USA: The Encyclopedia of the United States of America Past and Present, thirty-one volumes, Academic International Press (Gulf Breeze, FL), 1983–2003.

(Editor) Agricultural Legacies: Essays in Honor of Gilbert C. Fite, University of South Dakota Press (Vermillion, SD), 1986.

Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin: A Study in Labor-Management Politics, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1990.

(Compiler) Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 1991.

Harry S. Truman: Where Did the Buck Stop?, P. Lang (New York, NY), 1991.

T-Town on the Plains, Sunflower University Press (Manhattan, KS), 1999.

The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 2002.

Contributor to historical journals.

SIDELIGHTS: In a career that has spanned more than three decades, R. Alton Lee, a professor emeritus of American history at the University of South Dakota, has written books on a number of subjects, including labor relations, regulatory taxation, Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and the con man John R. Brinkley.

Among Lee's works, Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate and the follow-up volume, Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin: A Study in Labor-Management Politics, combine to create a discussion of a complex topic. The former title, a reworking of Lee's doctoral dissertation, deals with the political implications of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, while the later, published a quarter-century later, deals with the enactment of the Landrum-Griffin Act. Truman and Taft-Hartley "is a careful study of the reexamination of national labor policy in the Truman years," according to David R. Mayhew of the Journal of American History. In it Lee focuses, as he himself explained, on "the struggle between the agricultural and industrial groups that dominated Congress and the laboring elements that, through the President, controlled the executive branch of government." Mayhew acknowledged that detecting public mandates is "uncertain science" and that in this area Lee "is on less secure ground" than in other discussions. Industrial and Labor Relations Review critic Emily Clark Brown likewise remarked that readers "may be put off . . . by broad and unqualified assumptions and, at points, by generalizations based more on these assumptions than on presentations of evidence." Yet Brown found the work valuable for its factual content, remarking that "materials presented in this book are of greater interest and value than its assumptions and conclusions." Acknowledging that the study would have been stronger if Lee had considered such social issues as civil rights, housing, and inflation as they affected voters was Richard O. Davies, who nevertheless wrote in the Journal of Southern History that "Lee's best chapters are those which demonstrate how Truman manipulated the labor issue to his political advantage in 1948."

Despite any perceived errors in political analysis, the study has filled a gap in the historical literature. "Anyone interested in the life cycle of this national controversy will wish to consult Lee's book," Mayhew predicted. This proved to be true, for in a 1991 review of Lee's follow-up work, Duane Tananbaum noted in the Journal of American History that Truman and Taft-Hartley "still stands as the definitive work on the Taft-Hartley Act." In Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin, Lee conducted interviews, surveyed the existing literature, and "worked closely with the sources," noted Herbert S. Parmet in the American Historical Review. This work, which Parmet judged "equals in importance his earlier study of the Taft-Hartley Act," probes how the Eisenhower administration proposed bills to restrict the power of organized labor, including providing "a clear analysis of the workings of the conservative coalition." As Christopher L. Tomlins noted in the Journal of Economic History, "Lee's very readable book . . . written more or less by the same formula [as Truman and Taft-Hartley] is informative, insightful, and downright entertaining. . . . A political historian of traditional stripe, Lee is particularly acute on the details of partisan warfare, Congressional procedure, and lobbying." Yet, in Tomlins's view "Lee is much less successful when it comes to placing it [the act] in any structural or historical context. As a result, his conclusions are mundane and disappointing. In particular Lee makes no serious attempt to assess the impact of labor law on the organized labor movement." Even within its narrow focus, Choice reviewer D. Lindstrom predicted that, like its predecessor, Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin "will be the definitive work" on the topic.

With Dwight D. Eisenhower: Soldier and Statesman and Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency, Lee contributed to the literature on our thirty-fourth president. Lee paints the picture of Eisenhower as a product of his age, one who brought about calm after the chaos of the Korean War. Yet Lee criticizes Eisenhower for not stopping Joseph McCarthy from witch-hunting and for not supporting the efforts of the Supreme Court to end segregation. "By giving readers a concise account of Eisenhower's entire career, Lee fills an important gap in the existing literature," wrote Robert A. Divine in a collective review of books on Eisenhower for the Journal of American History. The work's enthusiasts included American Historical Review critic Parmet, who described the biography as "a smooth, useful synthesis of more than a decade of scholarship," and History Teacher contributor Gerald Horne, who wrote: "Professor Lee has accomplished his purpose of producing a comprehensive view of the life of Eisenhower that is a worthy addition to the historian's bookshelf."

After writing T-Town on the Plains, a history of his hometown of White City, Kansas, Lee penned the biography of an unusual man. John R. Brinkley was a con man, advertiser, and entrepreneur, who was known in the Plains states during the 1920s as "The Goat Doctor." Born and raised in poverty in Appalachian North Carolina, Brinkley was determined to make his fortune, which he did by studying medicine and making a career of male fertility treatments. He transplanted the gonads of goats into impotent men and earned a great following. He created a radio station that featured country music and his medical advice, becoming a target of the American Medical Association for his questionable medical practices. Drawing on archival material, Lee chronicles Brinkley's colorful career in "a lively manner" noted Booklist reviewer William Beatty. Journal of American History writer Angus McLaren also suggested that "readers with a penchant for the 'lives of the rich and famous' approach to biography should enjoy this study," for Lee details the extravagant manner in which Brinkley squandered his fortune, dying in poverty. Another enthusiast of the work was Garna L. Christian, who wrote in the Journal of Southern History that Brinkley created "a readable and insightful story of an individual more complex than his detractors knew or acknowledged," and that "the saga of this flawed genius is told with good humor, grudging respect, and considerable detail. Lee couches every issue in historical detail."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Agricultural History, fall, 2000, Virgil W. Dean, review of T-Town on the Plains, pp. 835-836.

American Historical Review, July, 1967, review of Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Question of Mandate, pp. 1518-1519; February, 1983, Herbert S. Parmet, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier and Statesman, p. 215; April, 1991, Herbert S. Parmet, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin: A Study in Labor-Management Politics, p. 636.

American Political Science Review, September, 1976, Clara Penniman, review of A History of Regulatory Taxation, pp. 978-979.

Best Sellers, April, 1982, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier and Statesman, p. 19.

Bloomsbury Review, July-August, 2002, Kim Long, review of The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley.

Booklist, April 1, 2002, William Beatty, review of The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley, pp. 1299-1300.

Business History Review, summer, 1990, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin, p. 343.

Choice, June, 1982, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier and Statesman, p. 1480; June, 1990, D. Lindstrom, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin; March, 1991; October, 2002, review of The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley.

Historian, August, 1983, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier and Statesman, p. 598; May, 1998, review of Agricultural Legacies: Essays in Honor of Gilbert C. Fite, p. 449; summer, 1991, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin, p. 830.

History, spring, 1991, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin, p. 140.

History Teacher May, 1983, Gerald Horne, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier and Statesman, pp. 442-443.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review, July, 1967, Emily Clark Brown, review of Truman and Taft-Hartley, pp. 715-716.

Journal of American Culture, winter, 1997, review of Encyclopedia USA: The Encyclopedia of the United States of America Past and Present, p. 114.

Journal of American History, June, 1967, David R. Mayhew, review of Truman and Taft-Hartley, pp. 197-198; March, 1975, Thomas K. McCraw, review of A History of Regulatory Taxation, pp. 1129-1130; December, 1982, Robert A. Divine, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier and Statesman, pp. 768-770; December, 1987, Robert A. McGuire, review of Agricultural Legacies, pp. 1037-1038; March, 1991, Duane Tananbaum, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffen, pp. 1422-1423; March, 1993, James N. Giglio, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency, pp. 1714-1717; February, 2004, Angus McLaren, review of The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley.

Journal of Economic History, September, 1991, Christopher L. Tomlins, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin, pp. 741-743.

Journal of Southern History, August, 1967, Richard O. Davies, review of Truman and Traft-Hartley, pp. 430-431; May, 1988, John T. Schlebecker, review of Agricultural Legacies, pp. 372-374; November, 2003, Garna L. Christian, review of The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley, pp. 971-972.

Presidential Studies Quarterly, fall, 1991, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin, p. 781; fall, 1992, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency, pp. 821-822.

Publishers Weekly, March 11, 2002, review of The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley, p. 63.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 1992, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency, p. 9.

RQ, summer, 1993, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency, pp. 492-493.

Sun (Baltimore, MD), April 21, 2002, Michael Pakenham, review of The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley, p. 10E.

University Press Book News, March, 1990, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin, p. 16.

Virginia Quarterly Review, winter, 1991, review of Eisenhower and Landrum-Griffin, p. 24.

Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2002, review of The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley, p. W11.

Western Historical Quarterly, October, 1987, review of Agricultural Legacies, p. 438.

Wilson Library Bulletin, December, 1991, review of Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency, p. 123.*