Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right(Politics and Society in Modern America)

Describes how the suburban pioneers created political and social philosophies anchored in a fusion of Christian fundamentalism, xenophobic nationalism, and western libertarianism. This book traces the evolution of the New Right from an anticommunist, anti-establishment fringe to a broad national movement nourished by evangelical Protestantism.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER 1 The Setting 20 CHAPTER 2 "A Sleeping Giant Is Awakening": Right-Wing Mobilizatio, 1960-1963 54 CHAPTER 3 The Grassroots Goldwater Campaign 111 CHAPTER 4 The Conservative Worldview at the Grass Roots 147 CHAPTER 5 The Birth of Populist Conservatism 187 CHAPTER 6 New Social Issues and Resurgent Evangelicalism 217 EPILOGUE 262 Notes 275 Bibliography 351 Index 379

About the Author :
Lisa McGirr is Associate Professor of History at Harvard University.

Review :
Winner of the 2001 Book Award, New England Historical Association Winner of the Robert G. Athearn Prize in Western American History "Suburban Warriors affords a rare picture of the grass-roots process actually working at a specific site... McGirr's setting is California's Orange County, which became America's most celebrated conservative stronghold in the 1960s. McGirr's book provides a valuable scholarly analysis of the demographics, culture, and history that made the county distinctively conservative."--Russell Baker, New York Review of Books "A fascinating tale ... Suburban Warriors goes a long way to explaining the origins of a movement whose influence remains formidable to this day."--Stephen Dale, Washington Post Book World "Well written and authoritative, enriched by the voices of the Orange County conservatives [McGirr] interviewed and by deep archival research."--Mark Schmitt, American Prospect "Orange County's success as a crucible for conservatism, McGirr skillfully argues, was rooted in the fact that it took tried and true American values of individualism and community, boldly exaggerated them and then recombined them in ways that accentuated their messy contradictions... McGirr blends political and social history and goes where few analysts before: to the kitchen tables as well as the meeting halls of the early right-wing movement. This is the book's great contribution."--Arlene Stein, The Nation "The best book yet written about the local insurgencies that dumped liberal Republicanism into the dustbin of history and made the GOP party of Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich."--Michael Kazin, Lingua Franca "McGirr paints a complex picture ... Incisive, yet fair, this represents an important standing of how antimodernist ideologies continue to thrive."--Publishers Weekly "The strength of her book is her explanation of the growth of the conservative movement through the stories of women and men who moved to the Orange County suburbs ... Remember welfare? Whatever happened to it? Where did affirmative action go? [McGirr explains] their demise and that of many other ideas that seemed so permanent, so much a part of a national consensus, in 1964."--Bill Boyarski, Los Angeles Times "This work captures the politically charged yet modest middle-class culture that gave life to the conservative movement... McGirr has provided an elegantly written analysis of the Right which will reshape historical understandings of the conservative movement for some time to come."--Gregory L. Schneider, Weekly Standard "A focused, stimulating account that demonstrates that many of the best contemporary works of the Sixties are about the rise of the Right."--Library Journal McGirr is enlightening, offering much solid research on the devoted beserkers who seized the Republican Party in 1964 to foist Goldwater on an unwelcoming nation... McGirr has uncovered something important about the activists of the right."--Todd Gitlin, Boston Review [McGirr] treats her subject with commendable fairness ... deeply informed with dozens of interviews and serious archival work... Suburban Warriors is a welcome addition to contemporary American history. It is the first long look at activists who have been woefully understudied given their influence on the course of recent politics."--Brian Doherty, Reason "A groundbreaking work of scholarship..."--John J. Miller, National Review "Should be read by anyone interested in American political developments of the last four decades... This is a fair-minded book from which both the Right and its opponents could learn a great deal."--Duane Oldfield, Journal of Church and State "Suburban Warriors is an excellent example of the value of combining political with community history."--Mary C. Brennan, The Journal of American History