Book Review: American Law and the Constitutional Order, Historical Perspectives

• Author: Robert T. Miller
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591297903200225
• Published date: 01 June 1979
• Date: 01 June 1979
• Subject Matter: Book Review

236

Western Political

Quorterly

which relates the wooing

of

the former Confcdcrate states in recent presidential

elections with primary emphasis on the GOP‘s southern strategy. The substance of

this book is enhanced by the fact that its author is

a

seasoned practitioner of the

political arts. Dent is credited with

a

key role in helping Nixon

win

in the South

in 1968 and 1972, and he alqo served

as

Gerald Ford’s southern campaign manager

during 1976.

According to Dent, it was the Goldwater campaign of 1964 which planted the

seed for converting Democratic Dixie into a “Republican heartland for presidential

elections.” One of the most significant assets for the future

of

the Republican

party in the South coming out of the campaign was Strom Thurmond’s switch to

the GOP. Dent gives Thurmond a peat deal of the credit for Nixon’s 1968 victory.

The former Dixiecratic nominee thwarted the Reagan effort among southern dele-

gates at the 1968 convention, and his argument that

a

vote for IVnllacc was

a

vote

for

Humphrey drew

a

number of southern states to the Nixon column.

From his vantage point on the Il’hite House staff during Nixon’s first term,

the author examines certain southern-oriented policies of the administration such

as

balancing

the

Supreme Court and the carrying out of desegregation in the

South. He observes that Nixon in

one

of his crowning achievements brought Dixie

through the trauma of desegregation in a manner which allowed the area to “face

up

to its duty with relative honor.” Dent also makes some intriping observations

concerning life on the White House staff during the prelude to IVatergate.

The Republicans continued to court the South during the election

of

1972 and,

aided

by

the nomination

of

McGovern, swept the region with heavy majorities. In

commenting on the Democratic victory in the South just four years later, Dent

points out that the only way the Republican incursions into Dixie could

be

stopped

by the Democrats was to “trump the GOP ace with

a

royal

flush

-

like nominat-

ing

a

‘good ole Southern

bof

to top the Democratic ticket in 1976.” The vital

difference in the close 1976 contest as in the 1968 race was made in the South, but

this time the Democrats were able to outbid the Republicans.

Dent concludes

his

work

by analyzing the situation of the GOP in the South

as

the 1980 election approaches. He notes that the Democrats were able to

win

most

of

the old Confederacy in 1976 by putting together

a

blue-collar and black coalition.

The author sees the continuation of such an alignment as

a

potential danger to the

Republicans in the future. However,

a

number of sugsestions are made for

a

GOP

strategy which he feels would overcome the current Democratic edge. It would

involve in part developinz

a

political relationship with black voters and overcoming

thc party’s image

of

“not caring” to

a

show

of

concern for the little man.

Hany

Dent has made

a

valuable contribution to the study

of

the changing

role of the South in presidential politics.

The Prodigal

South

Returns to Power

should prove of significant interest to both the academic and the general public.

TIP

H.

ALLEN,

JR.

Mississippi State University

American Law

atid

the Constitutional Order, Historical Perspectives.

Edited by

LAWRENCE M.

FRIEDMAN and

HARRY

N.

SCHEIBER. (Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 1978. Pp. 520. $22.50.)

This substantial scholarly volume is edited by Lawrence M. Friedman

of

the

Stanford University School of Law and Harry N. Scheiber, professor of history

at

the University

of

California, San Diego. Both of the editors have contributed two

essays to the collection, in addition to brief introductory comments before each of

the thirteen parts into which the essays are arranged.

All of the articles, cxcept one by Scbciber, are republications from other sources.

Many of the essays were first published in

law

reviews, but others appeared in

journals as varied as

Agricultural

History,

the

American Historical Review,

and

the

Jourizal

of

Social Zgistory.

They date from 1931 to 1976, most having been

published

in

the 1960s and the 1970s.

As

these sources would indicate, all

are

in

the traditional mold

:

they feature no scalograms, simultaneous equations,

or

Boolean algebra. IVith the exception

of

political scientist

S.

Sidney Ulmer and