If there was a city most likely to host the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Dallas was it. Kennedy himself recognized Dallas's special and extreme nature, saying to Jackie in Fort Worth on the morning of November 22, "We're heading into nut country today." Edward H. Miller makes the persuasive case in this lucid and insightful book that the ultraconservative faction of today's Republican Party is a product specifically of the political climate of Dallas in the 1950s and early 1960s, which was marked by apocalyptic language, conspiracy theories, and absolutist thought and rhetoric. Miller shows not only that the influential ultraconservative figures in Dallas fomented religious and racial extremism but that the arc of politics bent ever rightward, as otherwise moderate local Republicans were pressured to move away from the center. This faction promoted the creation of the national Republican Party's "Southern Strategy," which reversed the party's historical position on civil rights. This strategy, often credited to Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater in the wake of the crises of the 1960s, has its origins instead in the racial and religious beliefs of extremists in this volatile time and place. Dallas is the root of it all.

“Taps the fascinating history of a surprisingly understudied place—Dallas . . . to reorient our understanding of America’s Republican Right.” —Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed with Oil On the morning of November 22, 1963, President Kennedy told Jackie as they started for Dallas, “We’re heading into nut country today.” That day’s events ultimately obscured and revealed just how right he was: Oswald was a lone gunman, but the city that surrounded him was full of people who hated Kennedy and everything he stood for, led by a powerful group of ultraconservatives who would eventually remake the Republican party in their own image. In Nut Country, Edward H. Miller tells the story of that transformation, showing how a group of influential far-right businessmen, religious leaders, and political operatives developed a potent mix of hardline anticommunism, biblical literalism, and racism to generate a violent populism—and widespread power. Though those figures were seen as extreme in Texas and elsewhere, mainstream Republicans nonetheless found themselves forced to make alliances, or tack to the right on topics like segregation. As racial resentment came to fuel the national Republican party’s divisive but effective “Southern Strategy,” the power of the extreme conservatives rooted in Texas only grew. Drawing direct lines from Dallas to DC, Miller’s captivating history offers a fresh understanding of the rise of the new Republican Party and the apocalyptic language, conspiracy theories, and ideological rigidity that remain potent features of our politics today. “Well-researched and briskly written . . . A timely, intelligent, and penetrating book.” —The New York Times Book Review

An original and illuminating narrative revealing John F. Kennedy's lasting influence on America, by the acclaimed political analyst Larry J. Sabato.