Prodigal South Returns to Power by Harry Shuler Dent

by Harry S. Dent

As the South Goes, So goes the nation...at least at the presidential polls in recent elections (1978) Here is an insider's view of the people, the events, the political maneuvers that catapulted the South to the front in both political parties and finally into the White House.

308 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1978

About the author

Harry Shuler Dent, Sr. (February 21, 1930 – October 2, 2007) was an American political strategist and father of financial prognosticator Harry S. Dent, Jr.. He is best known as the architect of the Republican Southern Strategy. The elder Dent worked for Strom Thurmond, Barry Goldwater, and Richard Nixon during the realignment of the Democratic and Republican parties starting in the Civil Rights era, and for Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush later on.

Reviews

[Daniel Silliman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is set up as a political theory book, making an argument that the Republican Party in 1978 should follow the "Southern strategy." There's not a lot of substance to the argument and there are other, better places to look for that history. But in the process, Dent writes one of the more candid and revealing memoirs about working in the Nixon White House, what it was like, and what they were up to. He's not eloquent and not trying to defend himself, except in a few obvious places, and that makes him more honest that most. Worth reading for insight into the Southern strategy in practice.