Oklahoma Department of Libraries, Oklahoma Author Database
The Oklahoma Author Database highlights the literary heritage of our state through a compilation of contemporary and historical author profiles. It is an ongoing collaborative effort of the Oklahoma Center for the Book and the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. The Oklahoma Center for the Book (OCB) is a state affiliate of the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress and is organized to focus attention on the vital role of books and reading in our lives. The Center promotes the past, current, and future works of Oklahoma authors; the literary heritage of the state; and encourages reading for pleasure by Oklahomans of all ages.
Visit Michael’s profile at https://digitalprairie.ok.gov/digital/collection/okauthors/id/497/rec/2
OETA’s Back in Time
Back in Time is the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority’s award-winning documentary series showcasing significant people, events, and stories that shaped the history of Oklahoma. In “Hell’s Half Acre” (Episode 2022/07/28), Michael was one of four historians who described Oklahoma’s rowdy beginnings. From the Run of 1889 that opened central Indian Territory to non-Indian settlement through the early 1890s, the 320-acre townsite that blossomed into Oklahoma City was home to innumerable saloons, gambling dens, and brothels that resisted as best they could the imposition of law and order.
Okie Bookcast, Chapter 21, July 2022
Okie Bookcast founder and podcaster J. Hall interviewed Michael and Bill Price in July 2022 about At War with Corruption. In this award-winning biography, Michael chronicles Price’s extraordinary career as a federal prosecutor in the context of Oklahoma’s unsavory history of public and commercial corruption.
At War with Corruption - Bill Price and Dr. Michael Hightower
A Very OK Podcast
In these monthly podcasts from the Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma Historical Society executive director Trait Thompson and former executive director Dr. Bob Blackburn explore the interesting stories and fascinating personalities that make up Oklahoma’s unique history.
In March 2022, Trait and Bob interviewed former U.S. Attorney Bill Price whose prosecutions in the 1970s and 1980s branded him as the biggest corruption buster in Oklahoma history.
At War with Corruption (podbean.com)
To learn about Bill’s experiences in the broader context of corruption in Oklahoma history, see Michael’s At War with Corruption.
Oral History Association blog post
Oral History Association blog post In one of its regular blog posts, the Oral History Association chose 1889 to show how oral history interviews can be used to complement documentary research. In this book, Michael relied largely on oral history interviews conducted by WPA interviewers in the 1930s to tell Oklahoma’s foundation story.
1889: The Boomer Movement, the Land Run, and Early Oklahoma City
LoyalTV
BancFirst brands itself as “loyal to Oklahoma,” and it complements its extraordinary banking services with television broadcasts of the best Oklahoma stories you’ve never heard.
In February 2019, the LoyalTV production team traveled to the Harn Homestead in Oklahoma City to interview Michael about his book, 1889, for a broadcast titled, “A Noble Mission.”
This beautifully preserved homestead a few blocks south of the state capitol was the ideal venue for Michael to answer questions about William F. Harn and his role in shaping Oklahoma’s foundation story.
A Noble Mission
OETA Back in Time
In the 1970s, Penn Square Bank was a small bank in northwest Oklahoma City with close to $30 million in assets. That changed when a natural gas boom in the Anadarko Basin generated a stampede of developers desperate for loans to fund their drilling operations. Overnight, the tiny shopping mall bank became the financial epicenter of an energy boom that turned to bust, and it resonates today as a cautionary tale of hubris on a grand scale.
To help explain the rise and fall of Penn Square Bank, OETA’s Robert Burch interviewed Michael, author of Banking in Oklahoma before Statehood and Banking in Oklahoma, 1907-2000.
Breaking the Bank: The Rise and Fall of Penn Square Bank
KGOU Historic Oklahoma
To illuminate Oklahoma’s era of “wild west capitalism,” KGOU’s Kurt Gwartney interviewed Michael about his book, Banking in Oklahoma before Statehood.
The no-holds-barred brand of banking and commerce that breathed life into the Oklahoma frontier has never quite relinquished its grip since the earliest days of non-Indian settlement. As one wise observer quipped, “You’ve always had that gambling spirit in Oklahoma.”
Oklahoma’s Early Banking an Era of “Wild West Capitalism”
KWGS Studio Tulsa
KWGS’s Rich Fisher interviewed Michael about his novel, The Pattersons, the story of a rich and powerful family’s path to redemption—a path hewn from the bedrock of American history, and one with the power to revitalize a culture poised at the fraying edge of the American Dream.
Novelist and Scholar (and former Tulsan) Michael Hightower on his new novel, The Pattersons