Revival on the Right: Making Sense of the Conservative Moment in Post‐World War II American History

Abstract

AbstractSince 1990 historians have made a concerted effort to utilize new methodologies and highlight different themes and dimensions of political history in a quest to understand better the post‐World War II American Right. The result of this shift in American historiography has been a more intense, creative, and fruitful discussion about the origins and development of modern conservatism. As this article demonstrates, among the many historians now concerned with this subject are those who seek to employ a socio‐cultural approach in order to uncover conservative political activism at the grassroots level. Their scholarship has led to a heightened appreciation of how longstanding local and regional political battles over issues of race, space, and place galvanized a national movement which, by the early 1970s, identified itself as the New Right and aligned itself with the Republican Party.