Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: February 8, 2021 at 10:07:10 AM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-FedHist]: Hartmann on Williams, 'The Election of > the Evangelical: Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and the Presidential Contest of > 1976' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Daniel K. Williams. The Election of the Evangelical: Jimmy Carter, > Gerald Ford, and the Presidential Contest of 1976. Lawrence > University Press of Kansas, 2020. Illustrations. xviii + 446 pp. > $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7006-2912-1. > > Reviewed by Susan M. Hartmann (The Ohio State University) > Published on H-FedHist (February, 2021) > Commissioned by Caryn E. Neumann > > In this extensive and detailed account of the 1976 presidential > election, Daniel K. Williams makes an impressive case that the > contest witnessed the last stand of the New Deal coalition and the > onset of party polarization along cultural--rather than class--lines. > In addition to a wide range of secondary works on the 1970s, which he > sets out in a useful bibliographic essay, Williams has mined the > papers of not only Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford but also several of > their competitors in the primaries, including George Wallace, Ronald > Reagan, Sargent Shriver, and Morris Udall. > > To demonstrate the beginning of the two parties' growing divergence > on what Williams calls cultural issues--such as race, gender, and > sexuality--he devotes more than half the book to the primaries. He > shows how the dark-horse candidate Carter maneuvered a victory over > some ten other candidates on both his left and right, in part by > waffling on divisive issues, for example, on abortion to appease the > 48 percent of Democrats who favored a Human Life Amendment. This > example is part of Williams's larger argument that Carter managed his > nomination and ultimate election by assembling a moderately > progressive stance on economic issues, such as job creation, which he > combined with a slightly conservative position on social and cultural > issues (effectively removing them from the Republicans arsenal), > exemplified by his personal religious commitments. > > Few Republicans challenged their party leader, yet he fought Reagan's > challenge all the way to the Republican National Convention. The > former California governor promised federal fiscal stringency and > attacked détente with the Soviet Union, forcing Ford to move to the > right. Except for California, Indiana, Montana, and South Dakota, the > states Reagan carried lay in the South and Southwest. These victories > and Reagan's appeal to lower-income voters, blue-collar workers, and > less-educated voters, Williams argues, laid the groundwork for a > realignment of the parties. > > Some readers might skim over the abundant details that have little > bearing on Williams's overall argument--such as the several pages > devoted to explaining why Ted Kennedy decided not to run--but the > razor-thin outcomes of both the primary and general election allow > the author to demonstrate an engaging style that can hold the > attention of both scholars and general readers. An epilogue exploring > the demise of Carter's coalition and the nearly mirror opposites of > the electorate's presidential votes in 1976 and 2016 offer rich > material for discussion of US politics today. > > Citation: Susan M. Hartmann. Review of Williams, Daniel K., _The > Election of the Evangelical: Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and the > Presidential Contest of 1976_. H-FedHist, H-Net Reviews. February, > 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55955 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6199): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6199 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80480725/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
