The Rise of Southern Republicans
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- $44.99
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- $44.99
Publisher Description
The transformation of Southern politics over the past fifty years has been one of the most significant developments in American political life. The emergence of formidable Republican strength in the previously solid Democratic South has generated a novel and highly competitive national battle for control of Congress. Tracing the slow and difficult rise of Republicans in the South over five decades, Earl and Merle Black tell the remarkable story of political upheaval.
The Rise of Southern Republicans provides a compelling account of growing competitiveness in Southern party politics and elections. Through extraordinary research and analysis, the authors track Southern voters’ shifting economic, cultural, and religious loyalties, black/white conflicts and interests during and after federal civil rights intervention, and the struggles and adaptations of congressional candidates and officials.
A newly competitive South, the authors argue, means a newly competitive and revitalized America. The story of how the South became a two-party region is ultimately the story of two-party politics in America at the end of the twentieth century. Earl and Merle Black have written a bible for anyone who wants to understand regional and national congressional politics over the past half-century. Because the South is now at the epicenter of Republican and Democratic strategies to control Congress, The Rise of Southern Republicans is essential to understanding the dynamics of current American politics.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The South's political identity has been transformed in the last half-century from a region of Democratic hegemony to a region of Republican majority. Earl and Merle Black, political science professors at Rice and Emory universities, respectively (and coauthors of Politics and Society in the South), sedulously examine this remarkable change. The Blacks first explain the historical circumstances that made the Southern Democratic Party virtually invincible until the 1960s and then analyze, decade by decade, the cultural, demographic and political events that eroded Democratic advantages and made a competitive Republican Southern strategy viable. Their analysis is based on data from an exhaustive, sometimes overwhelmingly dense, study of Southern congressional races that evaluates voting patterns according to candidates' liberal or conservative positions, and by voters' gender, race, party affiliation and political philosophy. Wisely, the Blacks also provide numerous graphs and charts that help readers make sense of their complex, statistically driven research. In the end, the authors produce a richly detailed and astute picture of the forces that combined to change the Southern political balance. They also predict that the South is likely to remain a highly competitive political battleground in which both Democrats and Republicans can prosper depending on local demographics, the appeal of particular candidates and national events. This is a work of serious scholarship that lacks any hint of partisan purpose. Committed readers will increase their understanding of both Southern and national politics. The Blacks' effort may well be the definitive statement on Southern politics over the 20th century.
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