This volume offers a new perspective on American conservatism in the 1960s and the way in which the changes of the decade shaped the development of American politics for the next half-century. Historians have increasingly begun to view the sixties as a decade of conservatism, and a spate of landmark books in the field have traced the careers of Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Wallace. Much, however, is still unknown about the growth of the conservative movement during this decade. In their effort to chronicle the national politicians and organizations that led the movement, previous histories of conservatism neglected to examine lesser-known developmentslocal perspectives, the role of religion, transnational dimensionsthat help to give clues to conservatism's enduring influence in American politics. The contributions here provide a synthesis of cutting-edge scholarship that addresses those overlooked developments and offers new insights into the way that the 1960s shaped the trajectory and contributed to the political power of postwar conservatism.

Laura Jane Gifford is a scholar in residence at George Fox University and the author of The Center Cannot Hold: The 1960 Presidential Election and the Rise of Modern Conservatism. Daniel K. Williams is an associate professor of history at the University of West Georgia and the author of God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right.