V. O. Key Jr.
American political scientist (1908–1963)
Valdimer Orlando Key Jr. (March 13, 1908 – October 4, 1963) was an American political scientist known for his empirical study of American elections and voting behavior. His 1949 book Southern Politics in State and Nation examined the political systems of the 11 Southern states constituting the former Confederacy, both individually and in their shared features. He taught at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University.
Early life and education
V. O. Key was born in Austin, Texas and grew up in Lamesa.
When he was 15, his father, a lawyer and land owner, sent him to McMurry College for his last two years of high school and first year of college. He transferred to the University of Texas at Austin (BA, 1929; MA, 1930), and earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1934. He completed his dissertation, "The Techniques of Political Graft in the United States" (1934) under Charles E. Merriam's direction.
From 1936 to 1938, he served with the Social Science Research Council and the National Resources Planning Board.
Career
He taught at UCLA, Johns Hopkins University (1938–49), and Yale University (1949–51) before starting his last professorship at Harvard University in 1951.
“V. O. Key Jr.” enters the record as american political scientist (1908–1963). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what American, political and scientist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7906154. VIAF identifies the subject as 14859389. The Library of Congress control number is n50045817. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1963, 1949 and 1929.
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