THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN RIGHT
Few scholars have paid close attention to the factors internal to the Republican Party that helped the Right to consolidate its power within the party between the 1960s and the 1980s. Plugging the gap in party literature, The Rise of the Republican Right: From Goldwater to Reagan provides a comprehensive account of the rise of the Republican Right in the years between Barry Goldwaters 1964 presidential defeat and the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980. Specifically, it offers a historical-institutional analysis of the organizational factors internal to the Republican Party that helped the conservative Right maintain, and then expand its ascendant position within the GOP in the critical years between Goldwater and Reagan.
Brian M. Conley demonstrates how the growth of the Right during this period was aided by a desire on the part of many Republican leaders to rebound from electoral defeat by rebuilding the party organizationally, rather than reforming it politically, through the introduction of a more service-oriented party structure.
The Rise of the Republican Right will interest academics, party scholars, and researchers eager to gain a more nuanced understanding of the factors that helped the Right become a dominant force within the Republican Party.
Brian M. Conley is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Program in Political Science at Suffolk University. His principal research interests are in the areas of US electoral politics, political parties, and political marketing and branding.
ROUTLEDGE RESEARCH IN AMERICAN POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE
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19. The Social Process of Lobbying
Cooperation or Collusion?
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20. Congressional Communication in the Digital Age
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21. Reforming the Presidential Nominating Process
Front-Loadings Consequences and the National Primary Solution
Lisa K. Parshall
22. Public Debt and the Common Good
Philosophical and Institutional Implications of Fiscal Imbalance
James Odom
23. Removal of the Property Qualification for Voting in the United States
Strategy and Suffrage
Justin Moeller and Ronald F. King
24. The Rise of the Republican Right
From Goldwater to Reagan
Brian M. Conley
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The Foundation and Evolution of Common Cause
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First published 2019
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The right of Brian M. Conley to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Conley, Brian M., author.
Title: The rise of the Republican Right : from Goldwater to Reagan / Brian M. Conley.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Series: Routledge research in American politics and governance ; 24 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018060404 (print) | LCCN 2019005000 (ebook) | ISBN 9781351067621 (Master) | ISBN 9781351067614 (Adobe) | ISBN 9781351067119 ( ePub3) | ISBN 9781351067102 (Mobi) | ISBN 9781138478794 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138478800 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781351067621 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- )--History--20th century. | Conservatism--United States--History--20th century. | Right and left (Political science)--United States--History--20th century. | United States--Politics and government--1945-1989.
Classification: LCC JK2356 (ebook) | LCC JK2356 .C655 2019 (print) | DDC 324.273409/045--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018060404
ISBN: 978-1-138-47879-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-47880-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-06762-1 (ebk)
For Lisa, Lila and Elliot.
A book is never truly the work of just one person. Like any author, researcher or scholar I had help along the way from others who contributed in large and small ways to make this volume possible. I owe a debt of gratitude to my dissertation advisors at the New School for Social Research, Vicky Hattam and David Plotke, who helped me put the service-party framework into the context of the broader research on the rise of the Conservative Right. Their guidance and input at the formative stages of this work helped lay the groundwork for all my subsequent research on these topics.
It is also critical to acknowledge all the support I received from research staff at several libraries in the Boston area as I worked to compile the primary and secondary source material for this book. In particular, I am indebted to the research staff at the Media Lab at the Lamont library at Harvard as well as the Widener and Kennedy School libraries; the research staff at the Dewey Social Sciences Library at MIT; reference librarians at Thomas P. ONeill Jr. Library at Boston College; and the Mildred Sawyer Library at my home institution of Suffolk University. I want to express particular thinks to Michael Gianetta at Suffolk for tirelessly assisting me in my search for obscure sources that were often buried in offsite locations.
I also want to thank the research staff at the various archives where all too often I found myself sequestered for days on end. In particular, I am grateful for the William Brock papers at the Modern Political Archives at the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, and for archivist Kris Bronstad, who helped navigate the papers. I am particularly grateful to my research assistant, Hannah Nolan, for painstakingly reviewing and copying documents from the Brock collection. I am also indebted to archivist Whitney Ross at the Presidential Materials Division at the National Archives and Records Administration National Archives in Washington, DC, and the reference staff at the William Rusher papers at the Library of Congress. Finally, the reference staff at the Ray Bliss papers at the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, Ohio provided a great deal of support for my early research into the legacy of Ray Bliss.
My colleagues at Suffolk University have also been a constant source of support throughout the process of researching and writing this book. Im especially thankful to Ken Cosgrove for his constructive ideas and helpful advice, Jeff Johnson, who lived this history and graciously told me about it, and Rachael Cobb for the indescribable support she offered at every twist and turn in this project.
