The political consequences of experiences of community : Iowa migrants and republican conservatism in southern California, 1946-1964 / Denise Suzanne Spooner.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Microformat

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Spooner, Denise Suzanne.

Contributor:

Murphey, Murray G., advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--American civilization.

American civilization--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--American civilization.

American civilization--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

xii, 279 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

1992.

Summary:

Throughout the post-World War II decades in southern California, the conservative wing of the Republican party gained a substantial number of adherents. Concurrently, the population of the region grew at high rates through migration. Interviews were conducted with twenty-six migrants from Iowa who settled in southern California between 1946 and 1964 in order to explore the association between migration and the growth of Republican conservatism, the experiences of migration and settlement the migrants underwent, and to examine the values which underlay the migrants' political identifications and behavior. Migrants from Iowa were chosen because of the prominent role their migration has played in the region's popular narrative; Iowa is part of the census division which contributed the largest number of migrants to southern California in the post-war decades; and historically Iowa had strong ties to the GOP.

For the interviewees, politics served as a symbolic medium through which concepts of community were expressed. Two contrasting definitions of community were detected. One group defined community in terms of likeness to themselves, on matters of race and political ideology, for example. Among those in the second group such factors were viewed as characteristics which differentiated individuals within a community. They did not separate individuals from the group. The interviewees' experiences of and reactions to community in Iowa were at the root of these definitions. There, people were part of community so long as they conformed to prevailing social, economic, and religious norms. The political consequences of experiences of community were evidenced in the interviewees' political identifications and behavior in relationship to key issues of the period. Those who defined community in terms of likeness identified themselves as Republican conservatives. That group recalled casting votes for Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election and viewed the Soviet Union and Civil Rights protesters as threats to American society. Those who conceived of community more broadly identified themselves as LBJ supporters and did not recall feeling threatened by the Soviet Union and the Civil Rights Movement.

Notes:

Supervisor: Murray G. Murphey.

Thesis (Ph.D. in American Civilization) -- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, 1992.

Includes bibliography.

Local Notes:

University Microfilms order no.: 93-08664.

OCLC:

78130001