Unhyphenated America in Transition

The upper South – starting in the Appalachian Mountains and stretching west across the Ohio and Tennessee River Valleys and into Arkansas – has its own culture and history distinct from the Deep South. It also has its own distinct political realignment that has pushed the region toward the right starting in the mid-1990s.

The region is defined by concentrations of unhyphenated Americans – whites who trace their ethnicity not to the European country of their ancestors, but directly to the United States. Examining counties with concentrations of these American ethnic identifiers, the book uses election data to show the region’s rapid shift to the Republicans. Public opinion data shows the region was pushed to the Republicans by its conservatism on issues such as abortion, guns, and the environment, and the increased national salience of racial issues prompted by the emergence of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

• Examines the Republican shift in the upper South.
• Identifies unhyphenated America, counties where large concentrations of white identify their ethnic heritage as American.
• Distinguishes this realignment from the earlier one in the Deep South.

Brian Arbour is Associate Professor of Political Science at John Jay College, CUNY. He is the author of Candidate-Centered Campaigns: Political Messages, Winning Personalities, and Personal Appeals (2014) and a member of the Decision Desk for Fox News Channel.

"Brian Arbour has written a masterful, granular study of the white American ethnic enclave and the dynamics of its change. This book needs to be on the desk of every pollster, consultant, and student of American politics."

Keith Gaddie, Ho­man Family Chair in the American Idea at Texas Christian University

"Through a detailed examination of census and survey data, Arbour makes it clear that conservative positioning on a host of salient culture war issues makes the Grand Old Party the only choice for the vast majority of this demographically homogeneous unhyphenated American electorate."

Seth McKee, Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University