The Rise of Southern Republicans

Rating:
Summary: Far longer than necessary
Review: All right, if you REALLY REALLY want to know about every southern US Senator or House member from the 1950s or so until today, this is THE book for you. To be honest, I think the Black brothers could have covered the important stuff in about 50-100 pages; instead, they walk you through just about every southern election. They should have developed a few instructive case studies rather than covered everything. But then, if I were so smart, I could have written my own southern politics book.
Anyhoo, the changing political dynamics of the South are incredibly important for understanding the future of our nation. People are going to continue to move down here (I live in Columbia, SC), so the region is only going to become more important over the coming years in presidential elections and national politics. The Blacks' theory on why the South went from strong Democrat to Republican is interesting, but you can easily get the basics from the first and last chapter or so.

Rating:
Summary: A Much Needed History Lesson
Review: Given the Republican Party's recent reaction to the Trent Lott affair, this book is an excellent retelling of the rise of the GOP in the South and its sordid dabbling in racial politics. Earl and Merle Black are two of the most thoughtful and fair observers of Southern politics, and this is some of their best work yet. Occasionally dry and overly laden with charts, the book can drag in places.

Rating:
Summary: A Much Needed History Lesson
Review: I finished this book just in time for Trent Lott's abdication of the Senate majority leadership. The Blacks provided the appropriate context to understand Lott's unfortunate comments about Strom Thurmond. Both Lott and Thurmond are central characters in the book, as are Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater, Phil Gramm, Lee Atwater, Newt Gingrich, and the towering figure of Ronald Reagan who deservedly graces the book's cover.

The Blacks are adept interpreters of statistical minutiae. Social science geeks will enjoy the excellent presentation of charts and graphs detailing voting patterns of the vastly different groups who make up the south: whites, blacks, moderates, the suburban affluent, and the religious right.

The book nevertheless takes a wide historical view of southern Republicans. It also happens to be exciting and well written... thus setting it apart from most academic tomes. Not merely the story of Republican ascendancy, it also tells the story of the fracturing of the New Deal consensus by leftist democrats.

"When John F. Kennedy became president in January 1961, the Senate juggernaut of southern Democrats was intact." It was a vast coalition that unified the former Confederate states. "Republican!" was still a pejorative term, which could be used to great effect as a defiant cussword. But this was not to last. 'Unreconstructed' Dixiecrats like Ol' Strom found themselves increasingly isolated from the progressive far-left that followed in the wake of FDR.

Whereas FDR combined liberal spending with a conservative social platform, the 1960s New Left felt entitled to have it both ways. When Thurmond switched to the GOP in 1964, he was merely the first in a massive wave of conservative Southerners. The party of Dixie had been taken over by a new national leadership unwilling to compromise with southern whites. Republicans like Goldwater, Nixon, and especially Reagan were increasingly willing to extend their hands to potential voters alienated by the Democrats' embrace of affirmative action, secularism, welfare, and anti-war ideologies.

Race, of course, was a key issue. Lyndon Johnson, if nothing else his party's greatest political calculator, predicted this. The Civil Rights bills of the 1960s coming close on the heels of the Brown v. Board of Education spelled the end of his brand of centrist Democrats. "This will finish the Democratic party in the South for at least a generation," he told an advisor. But he also acknowledged the importance of passing the legislation. He signed the Civil Rights bills with great public aplomb but anxiously nursed secret misgivings.

As it turned out, LBJ's fear of a Republican takeover was not altogether accurate. The Democrats have by no means disappeared from the scene, argue the Blacks. Nor is there any reason to suppose that the next generation of Southerners will be more Republican than this last. Contests for southern votes are simply more hotly contested. "In its unmitigated ferocity contemporary congressional partisanship reflects the new reality that the results of national elections are no longer foregone Democratic victories or assured Republican triumphs."

Abidingly neutral, the Blacks provide excellent advice to candidates of both parties on their best winning strategies. Democrats should work tirelessly to get out the black vote, but they should hold fast to moderate position on all non-racial issues. That means taking stances that are unpopular with northern democrats, such as being tough on crime, hawkish on national defense, taking moderate positions on gun control, and remaining visibly reverent to traditional religious institutions. Conservatives need to unite two very different kinds of white voters: the suburban affluent and less affluent religious conservatives. Despite their meeting under the Republican umbrella, these two sets of voters tend to display opposite sets of civic values. The Blacks comb through massive survey data to get at the core issues of the parties' respective constituencies. The Blacks have a unique vision. Their book is untypical of academic scholarship. It is a boon to anyone who wishes to understand politics in a wide context.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent scholarship
Review: The Black Bros. did it again: they wrote an excellent book on the history of ALL southern politics, not just republicanism, in a very neutral fashion. This work is a must-have for anybody seriously interested in 20th century American politics.

Black and Black show, in plain-written text and easy-to-read graphs and tables, that the influence of the South on national politics has improved by a vast amount over the last decades. The descriptions of the republican struggle to gain popular attention in the South are exemplified by anecdotes about outstanding republican AND democratic senators and representatives on both the state and the national level.

The authors are right in stating that the past rise of southern republicans can not just be drawn into the near future. Nothing is more unpredictable than politics and voter behavior. However, the Blacks show that the South indeed has won a position in the center of American politics and that southern political trends and events are more important now than ever before.

Rating:
Summary: Must-read for anyone interested in US politics!
Review: This book covers extensively the history of the South over the past century. Presidential and congressional elections are explored in detail. I saw an earlier review alluding to the lack of information regarding Hispanics and Asians; however, i found that the Black brothers DO cover this information, while at the same time admitting that the black/white race issue has been one of the most dominant issues in Southern Politics in the 20th century. If, by the end of this book, you have any remaining questions about the South's role in national politics, I suggest reading the other excellent book by the Blacks, "The Vital South." between these two works, just about everything is covered. The Blacks are amazing--especially Merle!

Rating:
Summary: Must-read for anyone interested in US politics!
Review: This book provides readers a wonderful example of just what political scientists are SUPPOSED to be doing. Certainly, we write for one another, but in terms of books; one must be mindful of the amateur who might read your work. The Black brothers make a wonderful team and deserve much credit for reexamining Kevin Phillips' work in 1968 "The Emerging Republican Majority" however; this reader notes there was a conspicuous absence of Phillips' name in the text. To not mention him A SINGLE time in those 400 plus pages represents a obvious omission which should be brought to their attention.
In any event; the charts and graphs were well presented and the trends appearing were nicely explained. I would comment however that the Blacks might have missed the boat on some important observations that could have been made about Florida and Texas by keeping the race question largely contained to the "black/white" paradigm. Certainly the "shell game" played by the Southern Democrats and their eventual flip to the Republican Party can be largely explained by the 1960s Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts but the demographics have definitely changed in the South and contemporary discussions of race and its impact on partisan politics must do more than allude to hispanics or asians. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a book to explore the trending of the "Solid South" toward the Republican Party this one will definitely 'draw the picture.' I thoroughly enjoyed it and even with the few shortcomings noticed by this political scientist (who wishes SHE could have written this book) their presentation of the data is "on the money!"
I would and DO highly recommend this book to my students and to those curious about the "whos, whens, whys, and hows" of the southern dealignment.
Great Job Blacks.... you have done us proud again!

Rating:
Summary: Phillips' Republican Redux
Review: This book provides readers a wonderful example of just what political scientists are SUPPOSED to be doing. Certainly, we write for one another, but in terms of books; one must be mindful of the amateur who might read your work. The Black brothers make a wonderful team and deserve much credit for reexamining Kevin Phillips' work in 1968 "The Emerging Republican Majority" however; this reader notes there was a conspicuous absence of Phillips' name in the text. To not mention him A SINGLE time in those 400 plus pages represents a obvious omission which should be brought to their attention.
In any event; the charts and graphs were well presented and the trends appearing were nicely explained. I would comment however that the Blacks might have missed the boat on some important observations that could have been made about Florida and Texas by keeping the race question largely contained to the "black/white" paradigm. Certainly the "shell game" played by the Southern Democrats and their eventual flip to the Republican Party can be largely explained by the 1960s Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts but the demographics have definitely changed in the South and contemporary discussions of race and its impact on partisan politics must do more than allude to hispanics or asians. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a book to explore the trending of the "Solid South" toward the Republican Party this one will definitely 'draw the picture.' I thoroughly enjoyed it and even with the few shortcomings noticed by this political scientist (who wishes SHE could have written this book) their presentation of the data is "on the money!"
I would and DO highly recommend this book to my students and to those curious about the "whos, whens, whys, and hows" of the southern dealignment.
Great Job Blacks.... you have done us proud again!