Lauck and Stock, eds., The Conservative Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Conservative Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest ed. by Jon K. Lauck and Catherine McNicol Stock Emily Suzanne Johnson The Conservative Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest Edited by Jon K. Lauck and Catherine McNicol Stock (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2020. Pp. ix, 390. Index. Clothbound, $60.00; paperbound, $29.95.) Historical studies of American conservatism have tended to focus on either the Sunbelt South or white ethnic communities in the Northeast, and this volume provides an important contribution to the field by focusing on conservatism in the Midwest. As the editors point out in their introductory essay, the Midwest has witnessed a significant and contested conservative resurgence in the decades since the end of World War II, a resurgence which deserves further attention from political historians. The volume is premised on the compelling contention that "a revived midwestern history—with a focus on the region's varied social, cultural, economic, and political landscapes—can help us understand American culture more completely" (p. 3). In service of this goal, each of the volume's seventeen extraordinarily detailed and meticulously researched essays spotlights a "discrete episode" in midwestern political history since 1945. They also do an excellent job of exploring the nuances of political alignment and identity, which are always much more complex than binaries of "liberal/conservative" or "Republican/Democrat." Discussions of economic class, Christian affiliation, white ethnic identity, and regional diversity are also richly textured. The introductory essay makes an argument for the significance of midwestern political history by highlighting the region's absence from current scholarship on American conservatism and exploring "four major [End Page 72] developments that spurred conservatism in the Midwest in the postwar era": backlash against the 1960s "New left"; the attraction of Catholics to the New Right and the growing willingness of conservative Protestants and Catholics to work together politically; the economic downturn of the 1970s and 1980s; and "changing racial demographics" in the Midwest and in the national Republican Party (pp. 5–8). Each of these trends was also national in scope, and the editors could have further developed arguments about their particular salience in the Midwest. An explicit definition of the Midwest (or a discussion of how and why such a definition might be contested) would have helped to ground these arguments and provide a stronger rationale for thinking about the region in terms of a distinct, shared identity and history. The first three chapters in the volume stand out as more expansive in regional scope and periodization than the rest of the essays. Each offers a broad view of key developments in midwestern voting patterns and political identity, beginning as early as 1787 and ending as late as 2016. As such, they provide valuable data for understanding political changes in this region. Most of the remaining essays closely examine key moments in midwestern political history since 1945, from debates over reapportionment in Illinois in the 1950s and 1960s to the surprising pro-choice politics of Republican feminists in Michigan from the 1960s to the 1980s. Other key themes include electoral politics and campaigning, white working-class politics and the rise of the Rust Belt, and local debates over issues including same-sex marriage and the use of Native American caricatures as sports mascots. Each chapter is reasonably short (most are twenty pages or fewer, including notes), making them easy to assign as case studies. While they are probably too specific and intricate for introductory courses, they would work well in upper-level or graduate seminars, particularly if paired with other sources that offer broader national or historiographical contexts. This volume fills a real gap in the history of American conservatism. Its essays offer a variety of meaningful ways for thinking about the significance of the Midwest in shaping and responding to the rise of the New Right since the mid-twentieth century. [End Page 73] Emily Suzanne Johnson Ball State University Copyright © 2022 Trustees of Indiana University