Right Out Of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism

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Description

In a reassessment of modern conservatism, noted historian Kathryn S. Olmsted reexamines the explosive labour disputes in the agricultural fields of Depression-era California, the cauldron that inspired a generation of artists and writers and triggered the intervention of FDR's New Deal. Right Out of California tells how this brief moment of upheaval terrified business leaders into rethinking their relationship to American politics - a narrative that pits a ruthless generation of growers against a passionate cast of reformers, writers, and revolutionaries.

Reviews

"Olmsted's vivid, accomplished narrative really belongs to the historiography of the leftas her strong research shows, race and gender prejudice informed or deformed, almost the whole of American social and cultural life in the 1930s and was as common on the left as on the right."
The New York Times Book Review

"Stirring."
Counterpunch

"Gripping."
Truthdig

"An accessible work that aids in contextualizing the rise of future conservative leaders."
Publishers Weekly

"A well-focused academic study. Olmstedfinds in Depression-era California the crucible for strong-arm policies against farm workers that bolstered the conservative movement."
Kirkus

Author Bio

Kathryn S. Olmsted is chair of the history department at the University of California, Davis. A historian of anticommunism, she is the author of several books, including Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI, Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley, and Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11.