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Introduction

What Is the Sunbelt – and Why Is It Important?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

Sean P. Cunningham
Affiliation:
Texas Tech University
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Summary

This book is about the political culture of the American Sunbelt since the end of World War II. At the heart of this story is the rise of a powerful Republican Party, increasingly detached from its establishment roots on the East Coast, shaped by grassroots organizers and business leaders in rapidly growing metropolitan communities, and fueled by an ideological conservatism that employed a populist style to champion an agenda for free enterprise, limited government, low taxes, strong national defense, fervent patriotism, and traditional family values. As a result of these and other converging factors, the Sunbelt emerged during the second half of the twentieth century as the undisputed geographic epicenter for conservative Republican power in the United States.

Yet, at the same time, the political culture of the American Sunbelt – or perhaps more accurately, the history of American politics in the postwar Sunbelt – is also a story of contestation. At different moments and with varying degrees of success, leftist radicals, reformist progressives, establishment liberals, pragmatic moderates, and even some conservatives used the Democratic Party, as well as other organizations, to fight against this Republican ascendancy. Sometimes these groups were successful. Sometimes they were not. But the conservative Republican ascendancy that so many have identified as almost synonymous with the rise of the postwar American Sunbelt was hardly an easy, unobstructed victory march. Rather, it was consistently challenged and never foreordained. The history of American politics in the postwar Sunbelt resembles a rollercoaster of partisan and ideological adaptation and transformation. This book seeks to tell that story.

Type
Chapter
Information
American Politics in the Postwar Sunbelt
Conservative Growth in a Battleground Region
, pp. 1 - 16
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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  • Introduction
  • Sean P. Cunningham, Texas Tech University
  • Book: American Politics in the Postwar Sunbelt
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139170017.001
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  • Introduction
  • Sean P. Cunningham, Texas Tech University
  • Book: American Politics in the Postwar Sunbelt
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139170017.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Sean P. Cunningham, Texas Tech University
  • Book: American Politics in the Postwar Sunbelt
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139170017.001
Available formats
×