The Great Melding
Subtitle: War, the Dixiecrat Rebellion, and the Southern Model for America's New Conservatism
Publisher: University Alabama Press
Published: Aug 31, 2015
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 400
ISBN-13: 9780817318666
Description: In this pioneering study, Feldman shows how the transitional years after World War II, the Dixiecrat episode, and the early 1950s formed a pivotal sequence of events that altered America's political landscape in profound, fundamental, and unexpected ways. Feldman convincingly argues that the Dixiecrats--often dismissed as a transitory footnote in American politics--served as a template for the modern conservative movement. Now a predictable Republican stronghold, Alabama at the time was viewed by national political strategists as a battleground and bellwether. Masterfully synthesizing a vast range of sources, Feldman shows that Alabama was then one of the few states where voters made unpredictable choices between the competing ideologies of the Democrats, Republicans, and Dixiecrats. Writing in his lively and provacative style, Feldman demonstrates that the events he recounts in Alabama between 1942 and Dwight Eisenhower's 1952 election encapsulate a rare moment of fluidity in American politics, one in which the New Deal consensus shattered and the Democratic and Republican parties fought off a third-party revolt only to find themselves irrevocably altered by their success. -- Provided by publisher.
Notes: Source title: The Great Melding: War, the Dixiecrat Rebellion, and the Southern Model for America's New Conservatism (Modern South)