Awards
- Joint winner of 2017 J. David Greenstone Book Prize, Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association 2017
- Winner of 2017 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award, American Political Science Association 2017
Overview
Few transformations in American politics have been as important as the integration of African Americans into the Democratic Party and the Republican embrace of racial policy conservatism. The story of this partisan realignment on race is often told as one in which political elites--such as Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater--set in motion a dramatic and sudden reshuffling of party positioning on racial issues during the 1960s. Racial Realignment instead argues that top party leaders were actually among the last to move, and that their choices were dictated by changes that had already occurred beneath them. Drawing upon rich data sources and original historical research, Eric Schickler shows that the two parties' transformation on civil rights took place gradually over decades. Schickler reveals that Democratic partisanship, economic liberalism, and support for civil rights had crystallized in public opinion, state parties, and Congress by the mid-1940s. This trend was propelled forward by the incorporation of African Americans and the pro-civil-rights Congress of Industrial Organizations into the Democratic coalition.Meanwhile, Republican partisanship became aligned with economic and racial conservatism. Scrambling to maintain existing power bases, national party elites refused to acknowledge these changes for as long as they could, but the civil rights movement finally forced them to choose where their respective parties would stand. Presenting original ideas about political change, Racial Realignment sheds new light on twentieth and twenty-first century racial politics.
Full Product Details
Author: Eric Schickler
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Volume: 153
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.624kg
ISBN: 9780691153889
ISBN 10: 0691153884
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 26 April 2016
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Temporarily unavailable
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Language: English
Reviews
Racial Realignment is a genuinely illuminating book. --Rich Yeselson, Dissent
""Racial Realignment is a genuinely illuminating book.""--Rich Yeselson, Dissent
"""Racial Realignment is a genuinely illuminating book.""--Rich Yeselson, Dissent"
Author Information
Eric Schickler is the Jeffrey and Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His books include Disjointed Pluralism and Filibuster (both Princeton).
