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This chapter observes that in contrast to the one-China conception in dominance now, regionalism was a key theme of early Republican Chinese politics, as there was no stable central Chinese government until Chiang Kai-shek led the Northern Expedition in 1926. It notes that the southern provinces, largely out of reach of Qing imperial control, could be used by various forces as testing grounds for new projects such as reformist experiments in building Western-style institutions and the revolutionary mobilization of migrants returned from overseas. In this regard, the southern provinces were the place where different political forces sought support from foreign powers. It notes that in contrast, the northern provinces fell under the control of traditional imperial bureaucrats and, therefore, remained relatively uncontested in cultural and political terms. It adds that the Republican Revolution of 1911 elevated the political status of the southern provinces, signaling the rise of southern influence.

This chapter focuses on African American Republicans who can be labeled as “color-blind” because their strategy for linking black identity to Republican politics involves de-emphasizing the role of race in black people's lives. These African American Republicans see themselves as linked to a broader black community, but they reject identity politics as the pathway to racial uplift. They endorse Republican social policy as part of a commitment to an abstract notion of conservative politics, not because the policies are good for black people. Indeed, for race-blind African American Republicans, the best thing for blacks is to abandon race-based identity politics.

This chapter situates the consumer boom and suburbanization of California after World War II in the context of the changing dynamics of liberal politics on the West Coast. The rise of the Democratic Party to power in California took place at a time in which a range of interest groups demanding greater racial, sexual, and economic equality began to gain political traction and found that the existing avenues of party political action were inadequate for their needs. The California Democratic Party in the 1950s acted as a meeting ground for a range of cross-class interests searching for political meaning in a suburbanized, consumerist political marketplace. Creating the Democratic Party anew in the 1950s, at a time of a sharp right turn in state Republican politics, set the tone of political debate for the next generation.

The introduction provides an overview of the book's themes, arguments, and chapters. It describes how Memphis, Tennessee, was on the cutting edge of formal black political mobilization in the Jim Crow South and reveals the extent of black political action taking place elsewhere. It argues that black Republicans had more local, regional, and national influence that scholars have assumed and demonstrates why the lives of black Memphian Robert R. Church, Jr., and white machine boss Edward H. Crump are useful for exploring black politics. While scholars have focused on the switch of African Americans to the Democratic Party in the 1930s, the introduction shows the complexities of partisan change. By showing how black political activities were geared toward civil rights and other forms of racial advancement, it makes the case that formal black political action in the South was a major component of the long black freedom struggle.

This chapter focuses on the merchants and local culture in the Pearl River delta in Guangdong, China. It suggests that the merchants of the Pearl River delta were no more engaged in Republican politics than Tianjin professional elites and explains that the leading merchants were able to create vigorous dialogues with the state by engaging in a language of orthodoxy. It argues that the mercantile cultural cosmopolitanism of maritime China rose in tandem with the decline of the foreign sovereign power of the old continental empire.

This chapter analyzes the precipitous downfall of Southern literary scholar M. E. Bradford, who in an explosive rebuke was refused the post of director of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1981. The M. E. Bradford affair was the first incident where the neoconservatives were able to establish a position for themselves in the conservative movement and Republican politics by aggressively attacking and slandering an accomplished scholar, and by promoting someone who was much less accomplished in his scholarship in his place. Indeed, Bradford's fall from grace in the Reagan administration was engineered by neoconservative journalists and foundation heads; and the attacks leveled against him in the press as a “Lincoln hater” and Southern reactionary continued long after he was kept from government service. The chapter considers the likely reasons for these broadsides and how they targeted not only Bradford but, at least indirectly, other Southern regionalists, whom the neoconservatives in their ascent to power were interested in marginalizing. Contrary to a widespread misconception, the Bradford affair was more than a minor incident in the history of the conservative movement. It was fraught with significance in both demonstrating and consolidating neoconservative control of American conservatism.

The introduction sketches the current state of the scholarly debate on oratory and Republican politics and identifies the volume's contributions. It discusses comparisons which can help to explain why some orators and oratory were effective and others were not: these include the concept of the bad orator, as defined in ancient rhetorical theory and practice, and diplomatic oratory, a forum in which speech and action were in a different relationship from the one we witness in the contio, Senate and courts. The significance of Cicero is often overstated: this volume attempts to balance analysis with considerations, via fragments and testimonia, of a range of other orators, and notes the variety of methods by which less talented orators could remedy their deficit of ability. The introduction concludes with a brief summary of the volume's chapters.

This chapter examines the memoir-writing of key individuals within the Provisional Irish Republican movement, such as Sinn Fein President (1983-present), Gerry Adams. This writing can provide insights into the movement’s role and objectives during the ‘armed struggle’, but also its efforts to control the narrative telling of the conflict. The chapter also considers the reasons why individuals joined the movement, and the significance differences between the experiences of its members in diverse regions and localities. The chapter concludes with a detailed study of the memoir-writing of Gerry Adams, an emblematic figure in the contemporary history and memory of the Provisionals.