Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR

Reviews:

• “Anyone who looks backward from the last twenty-five years of Texas politics could be easily fooled into thinking that conservative Republicans had always won the day and spoke for the majority of Texans. In his excellent book, however, Sean Cunningham starts in the 1920s and offers and alternative and far more accurate view. Democrats, often of the liberal variety on everything except race, dominated all aspects of politics in Texas from 1930 to 1950. Franklin D. Roosevelt was especially popular in Texas, and as Cunningham makes clear, may have been the most popular president in Texas of all time. Read this well-written and compelling book for an antidote to what you thought you knew about Texas politics before 1950." – Walter L. Buenger, University of Texas at Austin

• "Sean Cunningham has done it again! The prolific author of Cowboy Conservatism and American Politics in the Postwar Sunbelt has turned his attention to Texas Democrats in the Age of Roosevelt and has written his best and most important book yet. Meticulously researched and enlivened with vigorous prose, Cunningham succeeds in making the case that the perception of Texas as a bastion of Republican conservatism has a far more complicated reality. Anybody interested in understanding not only Texas politics but also US politics ought to run out and pick up a copy of Bootstrap Liberalism." – Edward H. Miller, Northeastern University

• "Recommended for anyone interested in Texas New Deal-era political history." —Southwestern Historical Quarterly

• "Sean Cunningham’s Bootstrap Liberalism provides a detailed examination of the Democratic support for FDR during his administration by linking it to traditional Texas values of individualism, sacrifice, and Jeffersonian democracy. There is a subtext to the story he weaves, however, as the work serves as a disclaimer of sorts to the often-heard belief that opposition to Roosevelt by fellow Democrats during these years gave rise to the conservative political movement in the state." - Western Historical Quarterly

• " ... the book offers a cogent examination of white Texas political culture in the New Deal era. It provides useful clues as to how a pro-FDR, pro–New Deal Texas electorate and prominent politicians began to pivot away from FDR when they felt their alliance with New Deal liberalism threatened the state's commitments to apartheid, low taxes, and capital's domination of labor. These values helped form the core of a conservative rebirth in the postwar era, as Texas became a more important part of national politics." - Journal of Southern History

• Bootstrap Liberalism presents a fascinating insight into the workings of Texas politics in the FDR era—charting the clashes between leading Texas politicians of this period such as Maury Maverick, LBJ, “Pappy” O’Daniel, and James “Pa” and Miriam “Ma” Ferguson and spotlighting the importance of how an “individualist” presentation of the New Deal may have played a role in its popularity in Texas and—possibly—other traditionally conservative states as well." - Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

• "Cunningham shows that FDR hit the right note with Texans ... Bootstrap Liberalism is a well-written and well researched and is highly recommended for anyone interested in the growth of politics in Texas or in the United States." - Panhandle Plains Historical Review