What does it mean to be American? One might be inclined to look to the Capitol Rotunda, the engravings of monuments in Washington, D.C., or the Federalist Papers to find an answer to that question. But maybe Oklahoma City is a better place to start.

Bruce P. Frohnen and Ted V. McAllister devote a chapter of Character in the American Experience to the settlement of Oklahoma City beginning in 1889. Unlike many earlier American settlements, it was disorderly and not immediately community-based. There was no solemn charter signed by like-minded citizens binding themselves to one another in the sight of God. Self-interest largely directed events, along with the regulatory impulses of an increasingly assertive federal government looking after special interests. There were plenty of scoundrels and cheats too. 

But amidst the chaos of the famous “Land Rush,” and amidst the cheaters, shysters, and power brokers, an impulse toward orderly community emerged. People found ways to balance the influence of the powerful: “Good citizens . . . kept their heads and (mostly) kept the peace as well.” And many of the bad ones eventually became “domesticated”—even as others got away with their schemes and profited heavily. Without any mythical Founder of surpassing virtue, Oklahoma City spawned churches, schools, charities, citizen planning committees, and local democracy. Eventually, the con men were even woven into the city’s (and state’s) folklore.

The Oklahoma City experience may not be an ideal model of American community, or the most representative example. But it reveals the power of Frohnen and McAllister’s subject: the