Strom Thurmond's America

An “engaging . . . authoritative portrait” of the former South Carolina governor and senator and analysis of his political career (Library Journal).

“This is a thoroughly terrific and important work, for it makes clear the continuing impact of Thurmond’s legacy on our politics today.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Team of Rivals

Joseph Crespino’s Strom Thurmond’s America is not only an engrossing portrait of a controversial politician who time and time again found himself at the center of momentous political events (Thurmond “comes off as the Forrest Gump of conservative politics,” in the words of The New Yorker). It is also an insightful account from an expert on postwar American politics about the origins and nature of modern conservatism.

Though Thurmond is best remembered for his twenty-four-hour filibuster in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, Crespino reveals that years before Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, he was forging alliances with the Christian Right and taking up the causes of states’ rights, big business, and military spending. Crespino argues that Thurmond was, in fact, both a segregationist and a Sunbelt conservative, and a pioneer of today’s Republican Party. As Robert Dallek puts it, this book is “essential reading for anyone interested in post-1945 American politics.”

“[An] impressive biography . . . Crespino’s portrait reveals a flawed, egotistical, unapologetic, headstrong man whose views helped give birth to the contemporary Right and whose legacy continues to influence the GOP.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Insightful . . . masterfully ties together complex historical strands . . . Crespino doesn’t make Thurmond likable, but that’s not his goal. His is loftier and more difficult: to get beneath the surface of an influential politician in order to shed light on our times.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette