Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right

by Lisa McGirr

Book Overview

In the early 1960s, American conservatives seemed to have fallen on hard times. McCarthyism was on the run, and movements on the political left were grabbing headlines. The media lampooned John Birchers's accusations that Dwight Eisenhower was a communist puppet. Mainstream America snickered at warnings by California Congressman James B. Utt that "barefooted Africans" were training in Georgia to help the United Nations take over the country. Yet,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691096112
• ISBN13: 9780691096117
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Fascinating Analysis

In "Suburban Warriors," Lisa McGirr tackles the rise of the American "New Right" by analyzing it from the "bottom up," using Orange County, the arguable epicenter of the movement, as her bell-jar. Using interviews and an impressive array of primary source documents within a set and strictly adhered-to time frame ending in 1980, McGirr's disciplined and sometime-dry approach to her subject is both satisfying and unbiased. Her lengthly endnotes reveal reliance on sober authorities, and I saw nowhere where she played "fast and loose" with her source material. It is clear that whatever her background, McGirr takes her dispassion very, very seriously (even, and a little annoyingly, going so far as to say so a little overmuch). What develops is therefore one thoughtful and eminently credible interpretation of how the "grass roots right" in Orange County was born, developed, and spread its beliefs deep into some facets of the modern day conservative consciousness. It is a frank and candid discussion of the beliefs, social stressors, and even myths and "urban legends" that gave "the new conservatism" ideological life, explains how midwestern evangelical Christianity emerged as a force within it, and how it all dovetailed in the unlikely alliance of faith, business, and a national exceptionalist narrative accepted as uncritically true. And, all of this "pure gold" is bound up in a beautifully done and fascinating nutshell history of Orange County as the movement's "proving ground." It is a story rife with contradictions never acknowledged or confronted but which still somehow spoke to the deepest concerns of many in an uncertain time. I do have a problem with the subtitle, "The Origins." I would have said "One Origin" or "The Main Origin." Something along those lines. And I say so for the simple reason that in her time frame, for example, southern variant conservatism was also asserting itself with some noteworthy differences as compared to the "Orange County" variant. And McGirr's fidelity to her model simply does not allow for much discussion of such considerations. While this makes for a disciplined presentation with a crisp clarity, it does perhaps leave the impression that "Orange County stands alone," a fact she freely acknowledges but could have brought into a little sharper focus. Still, this is a minor point. I also found that she occasionally made some assumptions about midwestern emigres to Orange County that cast them as a shade monolithic. I would have liked a little more development there as well, but again, the point is a very minor one indeed and might have muddied the waters needlessly. A fine work, balanced, beautifully researched, amply supported by credible authorities, and true to sources. Highly recommended.

An Excellent History of the Modern Conservative Movement

Lisa McGirr's book, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right, chronicles the birth of the modern conservative movement from its beginnings in Orange County, California in the late 1950s through the election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States in 1980. Though conservatism grew from one issue, namely anticommunism, the movement came to encompass much more. Suburban Warriors' six chapters begin with "The Setting," describing demographics and economics in Orange County. Next, "`A Sleeping Giant Is Awakening': Right-Wing Mobilization, 1960-1963," describes the beginnings of the conservative movement; "The Grassroots Goldwater Campaign" highlights the involvement of Orange County residents in the 1964 presidential election; and "The Conservative Worldview at the Grassroots" defines and analyzes the conservative ideology. Finally, "The Birth of Popular Conservatism" introduces Ronald Reagan as the conservative standard bearer and "New Social Issues and Resurgent Evangelicalism" describing new social issues and a renaissance of the evangelical movement. McGirr concludes the text with an epilogue which brings the reader forward to the twenty-first century. Though Suburban Warriors' implications affect the entire country, McGirr uses "...Orange County as the lens through which to explore the social base and ideological waters..." to explore conservatism, and does so with the use of first person testimonials and statistical data. Appropriately, the first chapter, entitled "The Setting," describes Orange County, California, through the use of statistical and census data. One could surmise early on in this chapter that the author gets the reader lost in numbers at times, like the list of defense contractors and the number of employees in each company for example. Nevertheless, the history of the county and its subsequent growth is important for the reader to know so that an understanding of the birthplace of the modern conservative movement can be appreciated. Knowing there was a presence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s can further the understanding of how the John Birch Society became strong there in the 1950s. Moreover, the growth of fundamental Christian organizations and churches only emphasize the coming Evangelical religious movement that flourished in the region. Throughout the second chapter, "`A Sleeping Giant Is Awakening': Right-Wing Mobilization, 1960-1963," the beginning of the conservative movement is documented. Here, the leaders of organizations like the School of Anti-Communism and the John Birch Society are identified and their groups defined. The John Birch Society, for example, was started by a candy manufacturer named Robert Welch who became fundamentally disenchanted with the Republican Party. In Welch's eyes, the party did not do enough to thwart the spread of socialism and communism. This group was organized into small chapters that met at member's homes and participated in talks about communism and c

Analyzes the 'warrior' battle plan of the 1950's and 1960's

This book is neat precisely because it takes a scholarly approach to examining the new right. Instead of writing a frenzied treatise why the right is bad, Lisa McGirr lets readers draw conclusions from her fact-based historical analysis. The suburban new right emerged in the 1950's and early 1960's out of a desire for self-preservation. People in these newly emergent suburbs were alternating between the 'self-reliant' model of conservative libertarianism and 'big-government' social conservatism which placed its premiums on social and political conformity as a tool for ensuring order in the community. The then cold war united the two periodically disparate strains of conservatism into a unified school of thought; conformity was good for national security. Because it upheld the values which they supported (and felt were in the best benefit for America) the people who would become part of the New Right honestly did not mind when they and/or their companies received economic subsidies from the government. They had to defend the country against the reds after all. This was not mooching off the system, but ensuring the country would be able to produce the best resources and the brightest people to outmatch 'the reds'. The 'red-baiting' and 'race-baiting' which I and other people have publicly and psychologically associated with the right only came into existence when the status quo was being threatened. The same people who had not protested (and in fact welcomed) government benefits for themselves became genuinely anxious upon realizing that the civil rights movement was attempting to reconfigure the American state to offer more benefits to more groups of people. This exposed contradictions in the American state as it currently existed and hinted that a reconfigured American state would not provide exactly the same order of things as they had known it to exist. Fearful of these 'other' people, some southern states undertook the-then shocking action of voting for Barry Goldwater in 1964, disrupting the solidly Democratic south. Prior to this time, a southerner voting Republican was unthinkable. The party of Lincoln after all was responsible for both emancipation and reconstruction. Although Goldwater would loose to Johnson, his candidacy and campaign positions (including against the civil rights act) further laid the foundations for the present day situation. Voting shifts in the 1964 presidential election ultimately encouraged the Reagan revolution of the 1980's and George W. Bush's promotion of faith based initiatives today.

Good, but not great

McGirr's book traces the rise of what I would call the (white, middle-class) suburban right and the Christian right, beginning in the early 60s. The new right coalesced around anti-Communism, laissez faire capitalism, states' rights and local government, the "traditional" family, Christian values, individual economic responsibility, and low taxes.It was the suburban Christian right that first brought these views together. Barry Goldwater, who ran for President in 1964 against Johnson, was an early exemplar of new right views. However, his strong opposition to the Civil Rights acts won him the lower South and, along with his virulent anti-Communism, helped him lose the rest of the country. The suburban Christian right shed the virulent and conspiratorial anti-Communism that they initially directed at domestic enemies; south-eastern politics moved away from the New Deal order and shed legal segregation and overt biological racism; they all joined their Christian and conservative forces and formed a conservative coalition behind Ronald Reagan.McGirr's is a "bottom up" analysis that begins with the grass roots social base of the suburban Christian right, using Orange County as a prototypical case study. She also examines the interplay of grass roots leaders, rank and file members, regional business elites, and national intellectual and political leaders.The book doesn't delve into how the suburban right teamed up with south-eastern conservatives, but their shared Christianity, shared social conservatism, and shared opposition to civil rights, busing, and affirmative action makes it fairly easy to guess what that part of the story in general looks like. However, McGirr's would be a better book if she examined some of these connections, at least briefly. This is what makes the book good but not great.Post-script: Today, the Cold War is over, terrorism has replaced communism as America's global enemy, and George W. Bush has combined the Christian right with the post-Cold War, neo-conservative, neo-imperialist right. Bush has tried to combine anti-terrorism, neo-imperialism, and Christian conservativism without provoking Christian-Islamic antagonisms--antagonisms already strained by Christian conseravtive and neo-conservative support for Israel. These topics would make an interesting post-script to McGirr's book.

From Red-Baiting to Reganomics

A marvelous cultural history of conservative political and religious activism in Orange County, CA circa 1960 to 1980, Suburban Warriors evocatively renders the rise of New Right and the SunBelt, and argues persuasively that Orange County, CA was at the epicenter of the conservative revolution of the late 20th Century. Combining interviews with activists with larger demographic analsyses of the immigrants who came to populate the area during the post-WWII economic boom, along with an economic history of the growth of the area, McGirr deftly points a portrait of a time and a place and a people who were uniquely ready to create a new post-modern, politically conservative future. But it is her description of how it was done that makes for the most compelling reading. McGirr is particularly good at pointing out certain ironies that undercut the Conservative agenda. For instance, she notes that Orange Country was and is anti-tax (anti-egalitarian, anti-collectivist, anti-communist, anti-Federal government interference, anti-fair housing), but that the boom it enjoyed in the 60s was fueled primarily by federal defense spending. The Rugged Individualist, Boot-Stapping Entreprenuerial Businessman was in many ways beholden for his economic success on government expenditures. More recently, Orange County, following it's own free-market, low/anti-tax philosophy went backrupt due to investments in esoteric stock market products, investments the County felt forced to make because of budget shortfalls.She also notes that the conservative philosophy spawned during that era partook of two incompatible philosophies: social conservatism (the moralizing, anti-sex education in schools, anti-abortion beliefs) and libertarianism (the Ayn Rand inspired Objectivist movement was particularly strong in Orange County). She notes that these philosophies share many of the same values, but that they have different endpoints. She also notes that while social conservatives battled government or "secular humanists" interference in their lives, they also attempted to get the McGuffey's Reader into their local classroom (textbooks from the 1920s which had lessons about God and morality). In addition, she notes that the conservative position on property rights -- the property owners' rights are absolute (which justifies race discrimination in the renting or selling of property)-- fails to recognize the "natural rights" assigned to citizens by the US Constitution: equality under the law. These examples may make it sound as if McGirr is a liberal. I apologize if that is the case. She may well be, but if she is, it is difficult to discern it. Indeed, McGirr does us all a great favor by demonstrating it is possible to write about the often deep divisions in US politics fairly, with respect and insight. Balanced, deftly told, deeply researched, SUBURBAN WARRIORS may cause liberals to reexamine some of their deeply-held prejudices against this movement, it goals and its phi