Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Now?: Multicultural Conservatism in America / Edition 1

by Angela D. Dillard

Overview

The first comparative analysis of minority conservatism

In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Now? Angela Dillard offers the first comparative analysis of a conservatism which today cuts across the boundaries of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.

To be an African-American and a conservative, or a Latino who is also a conservative and a homosexual, is to occupy an awkward and contested political position. Dillard explores the philosophies, politics, and motivation of minority conservatives such as Ward Connerly, Glenn Loury, Linda Chavez, Clarence Thomas, and Bruce Bawer, as well as their tepid reception by both the Left and Right. Welcomed cautiously by the conservative movement, they have also frequently been excoriated by those African Americans, Latinos, women, and homosexuals who view their conservatism as betrayal.

Dillard's comprehensive study, among the first to take the history and political implications of multicultural conservatism seriously, is a vital source for understanding contemporary American conservatism in all its forms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814719404
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	02/11/2002
Series:	American History and Culture , #12
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Angela D. Dillard is Assistant Professor of History and Politics at the Gallatin School at New York University.

Table of Contents

1 Malcolm X’s Words in Clarence Thomas’s Mouth: Black Conservatives and the Making of an Intellectual Tradition

2 Toward a Politics of Assimilation: Multicultural Conservatism and the Assault on the Civil Rights Establishment

3 “I Write Myself, Therefore I Am”: Multicultural Conservatism and the Political Art of Autobiography

4 Strange Bedfellows: Gender, Sexuality, and “Family Values”

Conclusion: A Multicultural Right? Prospects and Pitfalls

Editorial Reviews

"...An excellent overview of this new movement."

The New Republic

"Smart and thoughtful . . . Perceptive"

The Women's Review of Books

...An excellent overview of this new movement.”

- The New Republic

From the Publisher

"Places the dynamic concepts of diversity and multiculturalism in a broader and deeper network than the often left-of-center milieu into which both critics and supporters assign them."

Choice

Smart and thoughtful....Perceptive.

Womens Review of Books

One does not associate scholars with perfect timing, news-wise, but Angela D. Dillard's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Now? could not be more of the moment...Dillard economically traces the roles of racial activism, feminism and gay liberation as foils and inspirations for neoconservatism, the New Right, the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition. She meanwhile keeps an eye on the relations between these fired-up groups and the Republican party, which they have sought to make their mainstream vehicle...Angela D. Dillard has contributed greatly to examining the true histories of American conservatism. It is a particularly necessary effort now, because while the Republican Party may think it has broken with the past, I expect the American past is not yet done with the Republican Party, or with any of us.
— New York Times Book Review

Scott L. Malcomson

...an excellent overview of this new movement…

New Republic

Why are groups that traditionally include more liberal and Democratic voters tuning to the party and beliefs traditionally held by straight white men? Read this book and decide for yourself whether this is a good thing or a frightening development.

Lambda Book Report

If you, like many, marveled that George W. Bush not only did but could put together a cabinet and staff that was racially diverse as well as fiscally and morally conservative, here's a book you'll want to read.

Ms. Magazine

Describes and analyzes the phenomenon of multicultural political conservatism in the US. Arguing that conservative politics are no longer the exclusive domain of white, wealthy males, but instead a collection of people from all races, ethnicities, gender and sexualities, Dillard (history, politics, New York U.) explores what this new influx of ideas means for the conservative movement, its members and the country as a whole. Particular attention is paid to the marginalization of minority conservatives, who are welcomed only with hesitation by the conservative movement, and shunned, without hesitation, as "sell-outs" by their own ethnic, racial or sexual groups. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"One does not associate scholars with perfect timing, news-wise, but Angela D. Dillard's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Now? could not be more of the moment."

New York Times Book Review