From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans

by Colburn, David R.

• ISBN13: 9780813031552
• ISBN10: 0813031559
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-14
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

Likely to raise hackles among Democrats and Republicans alike, this dynamic history of modern Florida argues that the Sunshine State has become the political and demographic future of the nation. David Colburn reveals how Florida gradually abandoned the traditions of race and personality that linked it to the Democratic Party. The book focuses particularly on the population growth and chaotic gubernatorial politics that altered the state from 1940, when it was a sleepy impoverished southern outpost, to the present and the emergence of a dominant Republican Party. In the twenty-first century, Colburn says, Florida is a dynamic, highly partisan, largely conservative state at the cultural, social, and economic intersection of the Western Hemisphere. But the transition hasn't been entirely felicitous. Allegations abound that the state is a "banana republic" favoring the wealthy, a piece of paradise that embraces "immigrants, natives, seniors, rednecks, evangelicals, and yes, flim-flam artists and mobile home salesmen. All of whom came to the state looking for ways to improve their lot in life." Colburn depicts the state's colorful governors at the center of every postwar development from Cracker to Sun Belt politics, from segregation to integration, from boosterism and modernization to economic and environmental crises. As the story of one of the most influential states in the nation, the book redefines Florida politics.

Author Biography

David R. Colburn is professor of history and director of the Askew Institute at the University of Florida.

Table of Contents

From darkness to sunshine : World War II, race, and the emergence of modern Florida	p. 11
Racial protest and the emergence of fault lines in the Democratic hegemony	p. 41
Reubin Askew, Lawton Chiles, and the reinvention of the Democratic Party	p. 73
An era of political transition	p. 99
Migration of the middle class, the search for community, and the emerging Hispanic presence	p. 115
Holding back the Republican tide, but for how long?	p. 136
From blue to red : the era of Jeb Bush and Republican hegemony	p. 157
The presidential election of 2000 : what happened in Florida?	p. 176
So what does the future hold for Florida?	p. 199
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