Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South (Politics and Culture in Modern America) [Hardcover]

Steven P. Miller (Author)

Book Description

Series: Politics and Culture in Modern America | Publication Date: April 1, 2009

While spreading the gospel around the world through his signature crusades, internationally renowned evangelist Billy Graham maintained a visible and controversial presence in his native South, a region that underwent substantial political and economic change in the latter half of the twentieth century. In this period Graham was alternately a desegregating crusader in Alabama, Sunbelt booster in Atlanta, regional apologist in the national press, and southern strategist in the Nixon administration.

Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South considers the critical but underappreciated role of the noted evangelist in the creation of the modern American South. The region experienced two significant related shifts away from its status as what observers and critics called the "Solid South": the end of legalized Jim Crow and the end of Democratic Party dominance. Author Steven P. Miller treats Graham as a serious actor and a powerful symbol in this transition—an evangelist first and foremost, but also a profoundly political figure. In his roles as the nation's most visible evangelist, adviser to political leaders, and a regional spokesperson, Graham influenced many of the developments that drove celebrants and detractors alike to place the South at the vanguard of political, religious, and cultural trends. He forged a path on which white southern moderates could retreat from Jim Crow, while his evangelical critique of white supremacy portended the emergence of "color blind" rhetoric within mainstream conservatism. Through his involvement in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations, as well as his deep social ties in the South, the evangelist influenced the decades-long process of political realignment.

Graham's public life sheds new light on recent southern history in all of its ambiguities, and his social and political ethics complicate conventional understandings of evangelical Christianity in postwar America. Miller's book seeks to reintroduce a familiar figure to the narrative of southern history and, in the process, examine the political and social transitions constitutive of the modern South.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Billy Graham, prominent evangelist, is reintroduced here for the important role he played in creating the latter-day American South. Miller studies Graham's behavior and rhetoric within the overlapping themes of religion, politics, and race during the decades since 1950 and Graham's part in the story of the post-civil rights South. Miller relates Graham's evangelical universalism, spread through his signature crusades, containing clear political meanings such as acceptance of existing civil rights laws, condemnation of racial violence, and dismissal of the need for further protests or legislation. Not everyone agreed with him, but Graham did muster regional support for political realignment, especially from Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton. Graham's career spanned decades, and his role as a political and ministerial counselor to political leaders well positioned him quietly to influence political, religious and cultural trends and ease racial tensions. Recommended for political science collections in academic libraries.—Leo Kriz, West Des Moines Lib.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South, a study of the evangelist's relationship to the cause of civil rights on the one hand and the cause of conservatism on the other, does justice to the tensions and complexities involved—for Graham, for the South and for the country."—Ross Douthat, New York Times

"With this book, Steven P. Miller emerges as a significant new voice in the history of evangelical Christianity. . . . The book opens new territory for modern American religious and political history, and for this reason it should be considered essential reading."—Donald T. Critchlow, Reviews in American History

"Wonderfully readable, engrossing . . . . A captivating history and a profound work of scholarship. Miller ably shows how evangelicalism aided the new conservatism long before the Christian Right exploded onto the scene."—Randall J. Stephens, Journal of American History

"Beautifully written, well argued and carefully researched . . . . Thanks to Miller's engaging and provocative book, Billy Graham and modern conservatism will never look the same."—Social History

"Fascinating . . . Miller is a valuable and sophisticated guide to how Graham—a man interested in both saving souls and playing golf with presidents—helped shape today's South."—Raleigh News and Observer

"A political biography that shines fresh light on Graham's political machinations, navigation of the civil rights movement and boosting of the Sunbelt South."—Christian Century

"Miller demonstrates a keen eye for the telling phrases in conversations or letters and incorporates them in a swiftly flowing narrative that pulls the reader along."—Journal of Church and State

"Billy Graham, prominent evangelist, is reintroduced here for the important role he played in creating the latter-day American South. Miller studies Graham's behavior and rhetoric within the overlapping themes of religion, politics, and race during the decades since 1950 and Graham's part in the story of the post-civil rights South."—Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; 1st Printing edition (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812241517
• ISBN-13: 978-0812241518
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,274,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( G ) > Graham, Billy

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The party line, July 22, 2009

By 

Cecil Bothwell "Author of "Whale Falls: A... (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South (Politics and Culture in Modern America) (Hardcover)

This decidedly non-entertaining volume will be of value to those who like their history dissected and pinned back so that every blood vessel and nerve can be traced. Reading it was a real slog, but I labored on because I'm a Graham biographer myself and was looking for some new insights. Steven Miller definitely did his homework and tracked down references between layers of correspondence and in the autobiographical works of third string players that a less dogged reporter could easily have missed.

The principal factual shortcoming I found in the work was Miller's tendency (all too common among Graham's mostly fawning biographers) to take Graham's word for otherwise undocumented events and report it as fact. The most clearly spurious is Graham's assertion that he took down ropes between black and white seating in Chatanooga in 1953. There are no extant newspaper reports of that alleged act, and, Graham changed the city in subsequent retellings, which casts serious doubt on the supposedly pivotal event. In a similar vein, Graham repeatedly charged that Citizen's Councils were threatening to block his crusades in various cities and that he stood up to them by threatening to expose their threats. But, in point of fact, he didn't "threaten to expose" them, he went straight to the press with his tale, playing the persecuted preacher role to the hilt. Miller reports these events as straight-forward news. He also gives Graham a great deal more credit for sincere anti-segregationist views than I was able to glean in five years of research. Contrary to Miller's version, I came away convinced that most of Graham's posturing on matters racial was self-serving and that he did a great deal to stall the movement toward racial justice in this country.

My reason for giving Miller's book this high a rating is that he has definitely done some serious research and is somewhat less gushingly generous to his subject than most of Graham's hagiographers. The book is extremely repetitious and dull, however, and if you don't have a very keen interest in Grahamology, I would steer a wide berth.

5 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Useful but deadly dull, May 9, 2009

By 

N. Ravitch (Savannah, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South (Politics and Culture in Modern America) (Hardcover)

Repetitious, ponderous, and just plain dull this book does provide interesting insights into Billy Graham's role in moderating violence in the South during the Civil Rights movement and even more information about his role in bringing the South into the Republican Party. I am no fan of this bloviating redneck evangelist but he has had the ear of many presidents eager for his help, usually out of political considerations. But he supported Richard Nixon more openly than any other president he knew and consorted with, certainly not a mark of wisdom or insight. It would appear that Graham helped the South into the post-segregation era largely by convincing it to become Republican. Republican racists evidently seem more respectable than Democratic ones. The end result has been a Republican South in which the Democratic Party, largely black, cannot win elections on any level above the merely local. The South has overcome racism by becoming Republican. What an easy way out!