When America Liked Ike: How Moderates Won the 1952 Presidential Election and Reshaped American Politics

The 2016 election cycle put in sharp relief the rifts that divide, and threaten to destroy, the Republican Party. While some claim these divisions originated in Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” or in Newt Gingrich’s tenure as Minority Whip, Gary Donaldson argues that the conflict has its origins much earlier, at least as far back as the 1952 presidential election. That election pitted the conservative wing of the Republican Party (the Right Wing, the Old Guard, what is now the Tea Party) against the Republican moderates, represented by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Set against the backdrop of the Korean War and escalating cold war tensions, the 1952 presidential campaign culminated in Eisenhower’s landslide victory over Adlai Stevenson. The election exposed deep internal divisions on the left and the right, but especially within the Republican Party. This book will prove an invaluable resource to readers, students, and scholars interested in rooting out the origins of our contemporary political landscape, on the right and the left.