Purchase
The Paradox Of Tar Heel Politics
Rob Christensen
The Personalities, Elections, And Events That Shaped Modern North Carolina
The University of North Carolina Press
May 2008
On Sale: April 21, 2008
368 pages
ISBN: 0807831891
EAN: 9780807831892
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Political
How can a state be represented by Jesse Helms and John
Edwards at the same time? Journalist Rob Christensen answers
that question and navigates a century of political history
in North Carolina, one of the most vibrant and competitive
southern states, where neither conservatives nor liberals,
Democrats nor Republicans, have been able to rest easy. It
is this climate of competition and challenge, Christensen
argues, that enabled North Carolina to rise from poverty in
the nineteenth century to become a leader in research,
education, and banking in the twentieth. Although party
divisions and the issues of race that often distinguish them
are deeply rooted, Christensen explains, North Carolina
voters remain loyal to candidates who focus on issues such
as education and building a business-friendly
infrastructure. He takes us to picket lines and debates and
through numerous red-baiting and race-baiting political
campaigns. Along the way we are introduced to many
remarkable characters, including a U.S. senator who was a
Nazi sympathizer, a candidate for governor who was a Soviet
agent, a senator who helped bring down Joe McCarthy and
Richard Nixon, and a TV commentator who helped usher in the
Reagan Revolution. Long before the talk of red state-blue
state polarization, North Carolina was an intensely divided
state politically. With Christensen as a guide, readers may
find there is sense after all in the topsy-turvy nature of
Tar Heel politics.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy