No right turn : conservative politics in a liberal America / David T. Courtwright.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Courtwright, David T., 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Conservatism--United States.

Conservatism.

Christianity and politics--United States.

Christianity and politics.

United States--Politics and government--1945-1989.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--1989-.

United States--Religion--1945-.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA . : Harvard University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Few question the “right turn” America took after 1966, when liberal political power began to wane. But if they did, No Right Turn suggests, they might discover that all was not really “right” with the conservative golden age. A provocative overview of a half century of American politics, the book takes a hard look at the counterrevolutionary dreams of liberalism’s enemies—to overturn people’s reliance on expanding government, reverse the moral and sexual revolutions, and win the Culture War—and finds them largely unfulfilled. David T. Courtwright deftly profiles celebrated and controversial figures, from Clare Boothe Luce, Barry Goldwater, and the Kennedy brothers to Jerry Falwell, David Stockman, and Lee Atwater. He shows us Richard Nixon’s keen talent for turning popular anxieties about morality and federal meddling to Republican advantage—and his inability to translate this advantage into reactionary policies. Corporate interests, boomer lifestyles, and the media weighed heavily against Nixon and his successors, who placated their base with high-profile attacks on crime, drugs, and welfare dependency. Meanwhile, religious conservatives floundered on abortion and school prayer, obscenity, gay rights, and legalized vices like gambling, and fiscal conservatives watched in dismay as the bills mounted. We see how President Reagan’s mélange of big government, strong defense, lower taxes, higher deficits, mass imprisonment, and patriotic symbolism proved an illusory form of conservatism. Ultimately, conservatives themselves rebelled against George W. Bush’s profligate brand of Reaganism. Courtwright’s account is both surprising and compelling, a bracing argument against some of our most cherished clichés about recent American history.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

1. How to Think about the Culture War

2. Like It Was When I Was a Boy

3. Overcome

4. Twenty Percent of What the Nuts Want

5. Cheerleaders for the Rev

6. Babe in Christ

7. Act Right

8. Robert Bork’s America

9. Like Battling the Devil

10. Referendum on the 1960s

11. The Illusion of Conservatism

Abbreviations

Notes

Acknowledgments

Illustration Credits

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674058446

0674058445

OCLC:

712039964