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Political Conversion

Personal Transformation as Strategic Public Communication

Don Waisanen

Stories of religious conversion have been told for millennia. Yet many prominent figures such as Ronald Reagan, Hillary Clinton, and Rick Perry have also used stories of their change from one political worldview to another as a communication strategy aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the public. This book is about political conversion stories in public discourse, in their evolution from and interactions with religion. From a historical perspective, it charts the development of conversion narratives from religious contexts to their contemporary applications as specifically political messages. Since these narratives continue to be used in the culture wars, this book examines several related autobiographies that contributed to the use of this strategy in contemporary U.S. politics. Each case shows how shifts during the postwar period called for conversion texts under varying guises, and illustrates how and why the majority of these stories have been of conversions from the ideological left to the right. Examining political conversion as a form of public persuasion, Political Conversion ultimately provides insight into what these types of civic-religious stories mean for democratic communication and communities.

Lexington Books

Pages: 312 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-7572-0 • Hardback • April 2018 • $116.00 • (£89.00)

978-1-4985-7573-7 • eBook • April 2018 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

Series: Lexington Studies in Political Communication

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Political Science / American Government / General

Political Conversion

Personal Transformation as Strategic Public Communication

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Stories of religious conversion have been told for millennia. Yet many prominent figures such as Ronald Reagan, Hillary Clinton, and Rick Perry have also used stories of their change from one political worldview to another as a communication strategy aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the public. This book is about political conversion stories in public discourse, in their evolution from and interactions with religion. From a historical perspective, it charts the development of conversion narratives from religious contexts to their contemporary applications as specifically political messages. Since these narratives continue to be used in the culture wars, this book examines several related autobiographies that contributed to the use of this strategy in contemporary U.S. politics. Each case shows how shifts during the postwar period called for conversion texts under varying guises, and illustrates how and why the majority of these stories have been of conversions from the ideological left to the right. Examining political conversion as a form of public persuasion, Political Conversion ultimately provides insight into what these types of civic-religious stories mean for democratic communication and communities.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 312 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-7572-0 • Hardback • April 2018 • $116.00 • (£89.00)

978-1-4985-7573-7 • eBook • April 2018 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

Series: Lexington Studies in Political Communication

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Political Science / American Government / General

Author

Don Waisanen is associate professor in the Baruch College, CUNY Marxe School of Public and International Affairs.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Political Transformation as a Pervasive Strategy
Chapter 1: Political Conversion as Manichaean Deduction: Whittaker Chambers’s Witness
Chapter 2: Political Conversion as Intellectual Reduction: Norman Podhoretz’s Breaking Ranks
Chapter 3: Political Conversion as Generational Induction: David Horowitz’s Radical Son
Chapter 4: Political Conversion as Bypassed Seduction: Garry Wills’s Confessions of a Conservative
Chapter 5: Political Transformation in U.S. Politics

Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

This book stands out among the many works on political rhetoric, offering an insightful examination of the political conversion narrative through four case studies. Fascinating and well written.
— Renita Coleman, University of Texas

Political Conversion

Personal Transformation as Strategic Public Communication

Don Waisanen

Political Conversion

Personal Transformation as Strategic Public Communication

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