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    Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism
    Unavailable
    Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism
    Unavailable
    Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism
    Ebook494 pages6 hours

    Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism

    By Kathryn S. Olmsted

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In a major reassessment of modern conservatism, noted historian Kathryn S. Olmsted reexamines the explosive labor disputes in the agricultural fields of Depression-era California, the cauldron that inspired a generation of artists and writers and that triggered the intervention of FDR’s New Deal. Right Out of California tells how this brief moment of upheaval terrified business leaders into rethinking their relationship to American politics—a narrative that pits a ruthless generation of growers against a passionate cast of reformers, writers, and revolutionaries.

    Olmsted reveals how California’s businessmen learned the language of populism with the help of allies in the media and entertainment industries, and in the process created a new style of politics: corporate funding of grassroots groups, military-style intelligence gathering against political enemies, professional campaign consultants, and alliances between religious and economic conservatives. The business leaders who battled for the hearts and minds of Depression-era California, moreover, would go on to create the organizations that launched the careers of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. A riveting history in its own right, Right Out of California is also a vital chapter in our nation’s political transformation whose echoes are still felt today.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe New Press
    Release dateOct 13, 2015
    ISBN9781620971390
    Unavailable
    Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism
    Author

    Kathryn S. Olmsted

    Kathryn S. Olmsted is assistant professor of history at the University of California, Davis. She is author of Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI.

    Read more from Kathryn S. Olmsted

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    • 3/5
      For the most part I was less impressed with this history of California politics in the 1930s than I expected because it seems to be less about the business response to the New Deal and more an account of the fight to organize migrant agricultural labor, a topic that really doesn't fire my imagination. This is not to mention that while this whole issue seems to be something of a revelation to the author I'm at least somewhat aware of the rise of Dick Nixon and Ronald Reagan to prominence so it's sort of old news to me. That Olmsted plays up the racial angle probably is the most novel thing about this monograph, considering the continuities with the conflicts that have informed the presidency of Donald Trump. This being the case my ultimate reaction is this book is just a reminder that I really need to read Rick Perlstein's "Nixonland" at some point, as the cultural pandering and race-baiting these malefactors of great wealth weaponized would have counted for nothing without an audience who was prepared to buy what they were selling; and that audience is still a factor in contemporary American politics.