Date Available

4-24-2014

Year of Publication

2014

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

History

First Advisor

Dr. Tracy Campbell

Second Advisor

Dr. Kathi Kern

Abstract

Cold Warriors in the Sunbelt studies the ways in which the Cold War experience shaped the attitudes, values, and beliefs of white evangelicals in the South. It argues that for Southern Baptists in particular—the region’s most dominant religious majority—the Cold War provided a cohesive and unifying fabric that informed the world views Southern Baptists constructed, shaping how they interpreted everything from global communism, the black freedom movement, the Vietnam War, and controversies regarding the family and gender. This dissertation further contends that the Cold War experience, and the formative influence it had over several decades, laid the groundwork for the political realignment of the South, gradually entrenching Southern Baptists within the Republican Party.

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