Abstract

The Oranging of America

This article discusses the book "Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right," by Lisa McGirr. Lisa McGirr's book uses the case of Orange County, California, to tell the story of the postwar conservative "revolution," highlighting that county's pivotal role in the making of the new American right. In the process, she helps the readers to reimagine the 1960s as not simply a moment of leftist radicalism but one of feverish conservative mobilization as well. Orange County's conservative movement was the nucleus of a broader right-wing movement spreading through the Sunbelt and West during that period, a movement that would eventually transform conservatism from a marginal group of anti-Communist crusaders to a viable electoral contender by the decade's end.