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From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 19631994. By Dan T. Carter. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. xviii, 134 pp. $22.95, ISBN 0-8071-2118-5.)
The eminent historian of American southern politics Dan T. Carter speaks as a "moral critic" in this volume of essays on racial politics in recent American conservatism. Three of the book's four chapters were delivered in 1991 as the Fleming Lectures at Louisiana State University. In a mostly journalistic and anecdotal style, Carter argues that the crucial distinguishing feature of American conservative politics since 1963 has been its manipulation of racial images and fears. Nearly all of the nationally prominent conservative politicians in the United States have exploited racial themes and subtexts in ways that link them to George Wallace's pioneering "politics of anger," he observes.
In Barry Goldwater's vote against the Civil Rights...