The South Won the Civil War: How a New Birth of White Male Oligarchy Emerged in the West.

This book uncovers the hidden story of how the American paradox, the competing claims of equality and subordination woven into the nation's fabric and identity, led to the rise of a new white male oligarchy in the West after the Civil War.

The author traces the story of how the Eastern "yeoman farmer" who symbolized the American Revolution was replaced by the Western cowboy, singlehandedly defending his land against barbarians and savages as well as from a rapacious government.

New states entered the Union in the late nineteenth century, and western and southern leaders found yet more common ground.

"Movement Conservatives," led by westerners Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, claimed to embody cowboy individualism and worked with Dixiecrats to embrace the ideology of the Confederacy.

This book provides a comprehensive understanding of how the South won the Civil War in more ways than one, and how it continues to shape American politics today.