Thesis
Reorganize or perish: William Edgar Borah and the Republican Civil War 1930-1936
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100780
Abstract
In the aftermath of the electoral humiliation of 1932, the Republican Party faced a crossroads on two fronts. The first of these was the pressure placed on the party by its, largely western, leftwing to liberalize and embrace reform in order to wrest the White House from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When the Old Guard refused to accede to the demands of its West wing, a Republican civil war commenced: further dividing the party in its darkest hour. The second impasse was in regard to the Republican Party’s southern strategy. The party faced increasing pressure to capitulate to white southerners on issues of states’ rights and anti;lynching legislation: a move that would cost them the legacy of Lincoln and African American voters. At the center of both controversies was Idaho senator William Edgar Borah, whose presidential ambitions in 1936 forced these issues out of the smoke;filled rooms and into the public sphere. Borah not only led the campaign to reorganize the party along western lines, he also ultimately forced the GOP to adopt a national policy with regards to anti;lynching legislation: forcing them to choose between the coveted white South or their traditional African American voting base. I argue that the Republican civil war had a profound effect on the future of the Republican Party and, consequently, the development of modern American conservatism.
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Details
- Title
- Reorganize or perish
- Creators
- Paul Michael Warden
- Contributors
- Matthew Avery Sutton (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525097601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis