The upper South starting in the Appalachian Mountains and stretching west across the Ohio and Tennessee River Valleys and into Arkansas has its own culture and history distinct from the Deep South. It also has its own distinct political realignment that has pushed the region toward the right starting in the mid-1990s.

The region is defined by concentrations of unhyphenated Americans whites who trace their ethnicity not to the European country of their ancestors, but directly to the United States. Examining counties with concentrations of these American ethnic identifiers, the book uses election data to show the region's rapid shift to the Republicans. Public opinion data shows the region was pushed to the Republicans by its conservatism on issues such as abortion, guns, and the environment, and the increased national salience of racial issues prompted by the emergence of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Autorentext
Brian Arbour is Associate Professor of Political Science at John Jay College. He studies campaigns and elections and political parties, and is the author of Candidate-Centered Campaigns: Political Messages, Winning Personalities, and Personal Appeals (2014).

Klappentext

Appalachia and the upper (or highland) South underwent a decisive electoral shift toward the Republican Party since the 1990s, decades later than the Deep (or coastal) South. This book argues that the region's partisan shift can be explained by the ethnic identity and conservative politics of "unhyphenated Americans." It will be an essential read for those interested in US politics & government, political geography, and rural sociology.