Description: In the wake of the cultural upheavals of the 1960s, many Americans wrote off religious groups, and the conservative movement, as political forces. By 1980, however, with the nation reeling from inflation, humiliation overseas, and a suspicion that liberalism was promoting a breakdown in morality, evangelicals deserted Jimmy Carter in droves, and Catholics converted to Reagan democrats. Conservatism not only survived but bloomed. By 1994, the Christian Coalition was helping engineer a legislative offensive that was to define American politics for years to come.

With God Is a Conservative, Kenneth J. Heineman has given us a learned and expansive perspective on this quantum leap in American political life. By tracking the political evolution of such influential leaders as Patrick Buchanan, Michael Novak, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell, and their constituencies, Heineman reveals the profoundly religious nature of contemporary conservatism. His book offers an intriguing look at the social history of moral politics over the last three decades, and the still tremorous aftershocks of the New Deal.

Heineman ultimately questions whether moral politics are a diversion from our most pressing problems or a cure for what ails the nation. Peppered with anecdotes, God Is a Conservative serves up a lively examination of the shifting alliances between social, religious, and economic interests in the United States.

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