Western Kentucky, once the 'Gibraltar of Democracy,' is one of the most crimson corners of Republican Red Kentucky. But in his engaging and well-researched book, George Humphreys highlights facts probably not well known in Kentucky: 'starting in 1931 and continuing to 1979, the region was home to a host of [Democratic] governors, state legislative and administration leaders, not duplicated in the history of Kentucky politics.' Hence, his book is a worthy addition to Bluegrass State historiography.
~Berry Craig, author of Kentuckians and Pearl Harbor
This book adds a much needed chapter to the political history of West Kentucky.
~Bill Cunningham, former justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court and author of On Bended Knees
The Fall of Kentucky's Rock: Western Kentucky Democratic Politics since the New Deal is a major addition to our understanding of Kentucky history. Not only does Humphreys provide the first serious historical study of the politics of western Kentucky, but he also makes a compelling argument that the general neglect of the history of western Kentucky by those writing the history of the commonwealth has skewed the understanding of the Bluegrass state's history.
~William H. Mulligan Jr., professor emeritus of history at Murray State University
George Humphreys's timely and important study of Western Kentucky politics from 1931-1979 chronicles the rise and decline of regional Democratic Party dominance. The author examines the physiographic features, historical, social and religious forces that helped to form and define the region's culture and politics. His thoroughly researched work adds significantly to understanding the period's influential leaders, its issues, factions and movements while examining reasons for the Party's wane and the Republican ascent.
~Jody Richards, Speaker of the House from 1994 to 2008 in the Kentucky House of Representatives
From Alben Barkley to Earle Clements to Wendell Ford, and beyond, west Kentucky has produced key state and national leaders. But to a more recent generation, those names mean little. Once the Gilbraltar of Kentucky Democracy, that rock has so splintered that the area is solidly Republican, and the names of many of those important leaders have been almost forgotten by new voters. George Humphreys's The Fall of Kentucky's Rock provides readers a fresh and important chronicle of an oft-forgotten region of the commonwealth. In this work, his excellent research, clear and compelling prose, and sound conclusions give readers a penetrating look at the politics, and the leaders who won—and lost— elections there.
~James C. Klotter
As a west Kentuckian myself, I found Humphreys's detailed account of a colorful period in Kentucky's political history both interesting and entertaining.
~Steve Beshear, Governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015 and author of People Over Politics
Humphreys superbly describes the complex heritage that shaped Kentucky's Gibraltar of Democracy.
~Bobbie Smith Bryant, author of Farming in the Black Patch
From McConnell's 1984 upset to the 1994 Gingrich Revolution turning congressional seats red, this seminal study of "how the west was won" is valuable context and perspective. Having depended on big margins in the west for my statewide wins, just as my grandfather, Governor Keen Johnson had done, Humphreys' excellent writing is required reading to see how things changed, where politics stands, what comes next.
~Bob Babbage, former Secretary of State, 1992-96
George Humphreys has made a tremendous contribution to the study of Kentucky history with this book. Never before or since has western Kentucky exerted the influence that it did in these years—the region contributed so many of the colorful giants of twentieth-century Kentucky politics. Here, for the first time, is a piece of scholarship that gives the subject the attention it deserves.
~Ben Chandler, former Kentucky attorney general and congressman, and CEO at Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky
This book finally fills a void in the literature of the Bluegrass State.
~James Duane Bolin, Murray Ledger & Times
The Fall of Kentucky's Rock should be in every library across the commonwealth, in the hands of educators engaged in exploring the history of the commonwealth, and on the reading lists of anyone interested in understanding how a once solid Democratic voting bloc evolved into a conservative stronghold.
~Constance Alexander, Northern Kentucky Tribune
Humphreys has made an important contribution to his effort to enhance the available scholarship on western Kentucky. While tracing the broad changes sweeping through western Kentucky, he also provides a careful analysis of the socio-economic shifts that powered those changes as well as a careful parsing of the complex factional struggles that characterized the years of Democratic dominance in western Kentucky.
~David Lee, Western Kentucky University History Department, Bowling Green Daily News
Humphreys's well-written chronicle is a welcome addition to the growing historiography of western Kentucky. (This) book... brings better understanding and recognition of western Kentucky's contributions to Kentucky and national history.
~Journal of Southern History
Focusing on western Kentucky Democrats—the 'rock' upon which the state party built its successes throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century—Humphreys seeks to trace the 'erosion' of this Democratic stronghold into the bastion of conservatism that is today. Further, given the attention that the national media paid to eastern Kentucky, what many commentators labeled 'Trump Country,' in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, Humphrey's insistence that historians pay attention to western Kentucky is most welcome.
~Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
