Angie Maxwell on the Southern Style in American Politics

The Periphery from the Pulaski Institution

Dr. Angie Maxwell is the Director of the Diane Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society and the holder Diane Blair Endowed Professorship the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She's the author, along with Todd Shields, of The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics. In this book—which is, I think, a really remarkable and essential work in American studies and for understanding both the South and American politics more generally—the "Southern Strategy" is presented as a longer historical event and one that's built on more than just Southern racial attitudes. In this conversation, we discuss the dynamics of Southern political identity and how the Republican Party's pursuit of political power in the American South has changed national politics and the Republican Party itself.