Freedom vs. tyranny: The rise and triumph of the California right, 1958-1966.

Abstract

My dissertation provides an analysis of how conservative California Republicans, after a disastrous drubbing at the polls in 1958, eventually seized the reins of the party from the state's moderates, who had long controlled it. Using vituperative polemics against the "tyrannical" policies of the "liberal establishment," the conservatives overcame their longstanding "extremist" image in 1966 and achieved their greatest success in the election of Ronald Reagan as governor. While I am concerned with prominent figures such as Reagan and Barry Goldwater, my larger interest is in the movement behind these individuals and the political culture in which it thrived. I also assess the extent to which the struggle between liberals and conservatives in the Golden State both reflected and influenced the national debate over the direction of the country's domestic and foreign policies. Southern California, particularly Los Angeles and Orange counties, was the stronghold of Republican conservatism. My analysis, therefore, focuses on these two counties, but within the broader context of state and national politics. Ultimately, the California conservative movement proved to be a harbinger of the shift to the right in public opinion throughout the nation in the latter half of the 1960s, especially in regard to the issues of race and federal spending. Thus, the state's Republican Right played a pivotal role in bringing about a conservative era which arguably still prevails.