This book is a creative synthesis of the published scholarly research on the contemporary American right wing from the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy to the election of Ronald Reagan as President. Unlike most other syntheses, it directly engages that research by critically analyzing the major explanations emerging from it. Emphasizing neither the lives and backgrounds of the scholars that he discusses nor paradigms within the social sciences as a whole, William Hixson focuses on the way the concepts of individual researchers have interacted with accumulating evidence on the American right, and how this evidence has led to new and more comprehensive theories. Hixson first summarizes and evaluates the research on the major developments analyzed by scholars-the social sources of "McCarthyism," the "radical right" of the early 1960s, George Wallace's constituency in his Presidential campaigns, and the emerging "new right" of the late 1970s. He then compares the interpretations of the two most influential students of the right wing, Seymour Martin Lipset and Michael Paul Rogin. Finally, he offers his own explanations, suggesting that the right wing is both a mass and elite phenomenon, that its durability comes from its appeal to the upwardly mobile, especially in economically expanding regions, and that far from being either "traditionalist" or reactive, it represents a proactive defense of values associated with late nineteenth-century "modernization."Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Pt. 1 The Sources of "McCarthyism" 1

1 The New American Right: "McCarthyism" as "Status Politics" 9

2 Hofstadter, Viereck, Shils: "McCarthyism" and the "Populist Heritage" 17

3 Rogin: "McCarthyism" as Midwestern Conservatism 27

4 Beyond Rogin: "McCarthyism" as the Revenge of the "Locals" 38

Pt. 2 The "Radical Right" of the Early 1960s 49

5 Bell and Riesman: The "Radical Right," American Society, and the Cold War 61

6 Sociological and Psychological Profiles of Right-Wing Activists 74

7 Hofstadter: The "Radical Right," Fundamentalism, and the Paranoid Style 96

Pt. 3 The Wallace Constituency 113

8 Southern Support for Wallace: The Politics of Place 124

9 Nonsouthern Support for Wallace: The Politics of Protest? 138

10 Wallace in Context: Reaction, Realignment, and a Society in Crisis 152

Pt. 4 The "New Right" 175

11 Studies of "Profamily" Activists: "Status Politics" Revised and Revisited 185

12 The Creation of the "New Right": Organizers, Ideologues, and the Search for a Constituency 210

13 Locating the Moral Majority: The Religious Factor 227

14 The "New Right" and the 1980 Election: The Religious Factor Reconsidered 249

Pt. 5 The American Right Wing in Perspective 271

15 Two Interpretations of the Right Wing: Lipset and Rogin 273

16 Conclusion: The American Right Wing in Perspective 293

Bibliography 329

Index 347