Seeking a New Majority: The Republican Party and American Politics, 1960-1980 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826518893 ISBN 13: 9780826518897

Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press, 2013

Synopsis

The rise of the Republican Party from its mid-twentieth-century minority status between 1960 and 1980 had a profound impact on American politics that is still being felt in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The GOP would move to the right in its pursuit of electoral ascendancy, but considerable debate within the party surrounded this shift and its success was far from certain. Ultimately, however, this development would culminate in the transformational election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980.

Seeking a New Majority assembles an international group of scholars to move beyond the ideas and activities of party leaders who have hitherto received the bulk of historical attention. It illuminates how the Republican Party expanded its regional base, especially in the South, appealed to new constituencies ranging from blue-collar workers to Christian fundamentalists, and enhanced the political appeal of conservatism. It also examines how Republicans engaged in a remarkable organizational and intellectual mobilization to challenge Democratic Party dominance--in search of a new majority.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"This volume makes a vital contribution by looking anew at the Republican Party in the two pivotal decades between 1960 and 1980 and provides a useful and innovative corrective to the Reagan-centered narrative that has emerged in recent years."-- Derek Catsam, author of Freedom's Main Line

From the Inside Flap:

The Republican Party in the wilderness--and how it returned

About this edition

• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0826518893
• ISBN 13: 9780826518897
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248
• Editor: Mason Robert, Morgan Iwan