The Conservative Frontier: A Book Talk by Jeff Roche

Jeff Roche will explore the birthplace of the present national brand of conservatism in American politics. “Between 1933 and 1973, everyday citizens working at the grass-roots (level) first crafted a political philosophy and then created a vehicle — the Texas Republican Party — to bring their ideas into the political marketplace,” said Roche. “They then, as the saying goes, ‘went national.’ This presentation explains the genesis of this phenomenon.”

Roche will also explain how West Texas - one particular section of the American West - became the most conservative place in the nation. “Exploring the intersections of myth, environment, history, and politics reveals a political region I call ‘the State of Jefferson’ (the 11th, 13th, and 19th congressional districts of Texas), the epicenter of the modern conservative movement,” he said. Based on a grass-roots study that spans more than a century, Roche investigates the frontier rhetoric, mythology, and iconography that played a role in the development of cowboy and Texas conservatism, which now pervades American society. Some key components to this ideology include fundamentalist faith, militarism, low-key white supremacy, libertarian distrust of government, devotion to the free market, well-defined gender roles, and small-town ideas of community responsibility.

For more on the book, check out this NY Times book review.

Jeff Roche is a professor of American history at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. He is the author and editor of several books and essays on American politics and the conservative movement, including Restructured Resistance, The Conservative Sixties, and The Political Culture of the New West.