The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990 Page: 417
598 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
more efficient. At the same time, they have become less responsive.
Wheat's conclusion is in keeping with the general tone of the volume:
"Precisely at the point when the civil rights movement began the en-
franchisement of blacks, effective political and governmental power be-
gan shifting from the elected officials in the South to the new profes-
sional bureaucratic elites. As a result, the recent liberalization of the
suffrage in the South is, to some degree, rendered symbolic" (p. 281).
Similarly, Joseph B. Parker's highly suggestive examination of the new-
style, professionally managed campaigns finds little to admire in mod-
ern southern electoral politics. Parker observes that the campaign con-
sultant firm that managed the election of Dale Bumpers as governor of
Arkansas used precisely the same radio and television ads to elect
William Waller governor of Mississippi, with the name and face of
Bumpers replaced by those of Waller. In the day of the demagogue,
southern politics tended to emphasize entertainment rather than issues,
and according to Parker the same is largely true in modern southern
politics.
Other essays in this volume merit lengthier discussion than a brief
review can provide. Timothy G. O'Rourke offers a perceptive survey of
"The Demographic and Economic Setting of Southern Politics"; Larry
Sabato presents a balanced and sensitive discussion of the New South
governors who became so prominent following the upheavals of the
196os; Charles S. Bullock examines the changing role of the South in
Congress; two essays analyze "Black Politics and the Voting Rights Act,
1965-1982" and "Current Trends in Black Politics"; and two other es-
says delve into the often neglected subjects of "Southern State Legis-
latures" and "Judicial Politics in the South." The overall result is an im-
pressive volume that is must reading for serious students of southern
politics.
University of Georgia NUMAN V. BARTLEY
The Party of Fear: From Nativist Movements to the New Right in American
History. By David H. Bennett. (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1988. Pp. x+509. Acknowledgments, prologue,
notes, index. $29.95.)
During the tumult of the late 196os, H. Rap Brown reminded us that
violence is as American as apple pie. In his well-researched and clearly
written survey of the antialien impulse in the United States from the
colonial era to the present, David H. Bennett, an historian at Syracuse
University, reminds us that intolerance of foreign people and ideas
(any "ism" but Americanism, as Joe McCarthy used to say) is as Ameri-417
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990, periodical, 1990; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101213/m1/473/?rotate=270: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.