Billy Graham and the rise of the Republican South / Steven P. Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miller, Steven P. (Steven Patrick), 1977-

Series:

Politics and culture in modern America.

Politics and culture in modern America

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civil rights--Southern States--History--20th century.

Civil rights.

Southern States--Race relations--History--20th century.

Southern States.

Southern States--Social conditions--20th century.

Southern States--Religious life and customs.

Graham, Billy, 1918-2018.

Graham, Billy.

Graham, Billy, 1918-2018--Influence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (317 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

While spreading the gospel around the world through his signature crusades, internationally renowned evangelist Billy Graham maintained a visible and controversial presence in his native South, a region that underwent substantial political and economic change in the latter half of the twentieth century. In this period Graham was alternately a desegregating crusader in Alabama, Sunbelt booster in Atlanta, regional apologist in the national press, and southern strategist in the Nixon administration.Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South considers the critical but underappreciated role of the noted evangelist in the creation of the modern American South. The region experienced two significant related shifts away from its status as what observers and critics called the "Solid South": the end of legalized Jim Crow and the end of Democratic Party dominance. Author Steven P. Miller treats Graham as a serious actor and a powerful symbol in this transition-an evangelist first and foremost, but also a profoundly political figure. In his roles as the nation's most visible evangelist, adviser to political leaders, and a regional spokesperson, Graham influenced many of the developments that drove celebrants and detractors alike to place the South at the vanguard of political, religious, and cultural trends. He forged a path on which white southern moderates could retreat from Jim Crow, while his evangelical critique of white supremacy portended the emergence of "color blind" rhetoric within mainstream conservatism. Through his involvement in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations, as well as his deep social ties in the South, the evangelist influenced the decades-long process of political realignment.Graham's public life sheds new light on recent southern history in all of its ambiguities, and his social and political ethics complicate conventional understandings of evangelical Christianity in postwar America. Miller's book seeks to reintroduce a familiar figure to the narrative of southern history and, in the process, examine the political and social transitions constitutive of the modern South.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction. Billy Graham's New South

Chapter one. ''No Segregation at the Altar''

Chapter two. Evangelical Universalism in the Post-Brown South

Chapter three. The Politics of Decency

Chapter four. ''Another Kind of March''

Chapter five. Billy Graham's Southern Strategy

Chapter six. Crusading for the Sunbelt South

Chapter seven. ''Before the Water Gate''

Epilogue. Billy Graham and American Conservatism

Notes

Archival and manuscript sources

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-293) and index.

ISBN:

9781283896450

1283896451

9780812206142

0812206142

OCLC:

802049499