White Protestant nation : the rise of the American conservative movement

Spanning nearly one hundred years of American political history, and abounding with outsize characters--from Lindbergh to Goldwater to Gingrich to Abramoff-- White Protestant Nation offers a penetrating look at the origins, evolution, and triumph (at times) of modern conservatism. Lichtman is both a professor of political history at American University and a veteran journalist, and after ten years of prodigious research, he has produced what may be the definitive history of the modern conservative movement in America. He brings to life a gallery of dynamic right-wing personalities, from luminaries such as Strom Thurmond, Phyllis Schlafly, and Bill Kristol to indispensable inside operators like financiers Frank Gannett and J. Howard Pew. He explodes the conventional wisdom that modern conservative politics began with Goldwater and instead traces the roots of today’s movement to the 1920s. And he lays bare the tactics that conservatives have used for generations to put their slant on policy and culture; to choke the growth of the liberal state; and to build the most powerful media, fundraising, and intellectual network in the history of representative government. White Protestant Nation is entertaining, provocative, enlightening, and essential reading for anyone who cares about modern American politics and its history. Examines The Origins, Development, And Achievements Of Conservatism In The United States, From The Birth Of The Modern Right In The 1920s Through The Restoration Of The Conservative Consensus At The End Of The Twentieth Century. The Birth Of The Modern Right, 1920-1928 -- Crying In The Wilderness, 1929-1936 -- Up From The Ashes, 1936-1945 -- The Best And The Worst Years For Conservatives, 1945-1952 -- Strangers In A Modern Republican Land, 1952-1960 -- Conservatives Fall, Rise, And Fall Again, 1960-1968 -- The Right Rebuilds In Adversity, 1969-1976 -- The Reagan Revolution, 1977-1984 -- Restoring The Conservative Consensus, 1985-2000 -- Epilogue: A Conservative Implosion? Allan J. Lichtman. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [527]-559) And Index.