Born in Illinois in 1904, Kenneth Oren Warner received his A. B. from the University of Washington (1926); his M. A. (1927) and Ph. D. (1931) in political science were from the same institution. Warner was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington from 1929-31, where he came into contact with Charles Beard. Warner taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Arkansas from 1931-34, an experience reflected in his textbook, Arkansas State and Local Government. He was the author of other works as well, including An Introduction to Some Problems of Australian Federalism: A Study of the Relationship Between the Australian States and the Commonwealth, with a Special Reference to Finance; and Problems of Arkansas Government, and he was the editor of Management Relations with Organized Public Employees: Theory, Policies, Program. Further biographical information can be found in Who's Who in the South and Southwest for 1978-79.

Warner's specialty was state and local government, but it was in the arena of political action that he made his mark, and it is on this action that the present collection focuses.

A founder of the Arkansas Municipal League and its executive director in 1934-35, Warner was involved in writing the law that permitted the city-manager form of government in Arkansas. He also took part in the Arkansas Peoples' Conference (1933), as well as in the introduction into Arkansas of the city manager form of government . He participated as well in the Institute for County Officials (March 9-11, 1936). Warner later served as Executive Director of the Northwest Regional Council in Portland, Oregon, 1938-41, and was Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, 1941-42. He has also held other significant administrative posts. But it was as the Director of Personnel of the Arkansas Civil Service Commission (ACSC) under Governor Carl E. Bailey that Warner enjoyed his greatest public achievement. Warner was responsible for translating the Arkansas Civil Service Law of 1937, repealed in 1939, into a workable and equitable system.