The transformation of Southern politics over the past fifty years has been one of the most significant developments in American political life. The emergence of formidable Republican strength in the previously solid Democratic South has generated a novel and highly competitive national battle for control of Congress. Tracing the slow and difficult rise of Republicans in the South over five decades, Earl and Merle Black tell the remarkable story of political upheaval.

The Rise of Southern Republicans provides a compelling account of growing competitiveness in Southern party politics and elections. Through extraordinary research and analysis, the authors track Southern voters' shifting economic, cultural, and religious loyalties, black/white conflicts and interests during and after federal civil rights intervention, and the struggles and adaptations of congressional candidates and officials.

A newly competitive South, the authors argue, means a newly competitive and revitalized America. The story of how the South became a two-party region is ultimately the story of two-party politics in America at the end of the twentieth century. Earl and Merle Black have written a bible for anyone who wants to understand regional and national congressional politics over the past half-century. Because the South is now at the epicenter of Republican and Democratic strategies to control Congress, The Rise of Southern Republicans is essential to understanding the dynamics of current American politics.

Table of Contents:

1. The Southern Transformation
2. Confronting the Democratic Juggernaut
3. The Promising Peripheral South
4. The Impenetrable Deep South
5. The Democratic Smother
6. The Democratic Domination
7. Reagan's Realignment of White Southerners
8. A New Party System in the South
9. The Peripheral South Breakthrough
10. The Deep South Challenge
11. The Republican Surge
12. Competitive South, Competitive America

Notes
Index

Reviews of this book:
These two leading scholars of Southern politics present a rigorous investigation of how voting in the peripheral South (Florida, Arkansas, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee) and the Deep South (Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina) was realigned since Ronald Reagan was first elected president in 1980.
--Karl Helicher, Library Journal

With publication of their latest book, The Rise of Southern Republicans the Blacks, both 60, have produced a trilogy that traces an almost geologic-style evolution in the South's political landscape. They've analyzed the whys and what-fors of a region, that in the past 50 years, has gone from impenetrably Democratic to competitively Republican. Their overarching conclusion: the two-party warfare that defines the South defines the nation... The Blacks' work--a mix of political wonkery and historical perspective, cut with the deliciously illuminating anecdote--is read by academics in various disciplines and political junkies of all stripes. The books are valued for their coolly dissecting insights... Because their writing swells beyond the data-crunching lab work of most political scientists--though new readers beware: The books are littered with scary-looking charts and graphs--it travels beyond academia. Party strategists are steeped in the work. "The Blacks wrote the book on how academic political science can illuminate practical politics," says Republican pollster Whit Ayers.
--Drew Jubera, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The South's political identity has been transformed in the last half-century from a region of Democratic hegemony to a region of Republican majority. Earl and Merle Black... sedulously examine this remarkable change... This is a work of serious scholarship that lacks any hint of a partisan purpose. Committed readers will increase their understanding of...

• We started tracking this book on June 26, 2011.
• This book was $11.83 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 335 times in the past 5,034 days.
• The current price of this book is $30.42 last checked one day ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $28.62.
• The lowest price to date was $11.83 last reached on April 5, 2012.
• This book has been $11.83 2 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $46.00 last reached on December 26, 2021.
• This book has been $46.00 4 times since we started tracking it.

• HistoryAmericasUnited States20th Century
• HistoryAmericas
• HistoryUnited States20th Century

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled