ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 This project is the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication, but

it would not have been possible without assistance and support from a number of

individuals along the way. First and foremost, I have to thank God and my parents for

all that they have done for me since before I arrived at the University of Florida. Dr.

Brian Ward, whose admiration for West Ham United is only surpassed by his love for

the band Gov't Mule, was everything I could have asked for in an advisor. Dr. Charles

Montgomery pushed and prodded me to turn this project from a narrow study of the

GOP to a work that advances our understanding of postwar America. Dr. Robert

Zieger was a judicious editor whose suggestions greatly improved my writing at every

step of the way. Drs. George Esenwein and Daniel Smith gave very helpful criticism

in the later stages of the project and helped make the dissertation more accessible. I

would also like to thank my fellow graduate students in the Department of History,

especially the rest of "Brian Ward's Claret and Blue Army," for helping make the

basement of Keene-Flint into a collegial place and improving my scholarship through

debate and discussion. Finally, I must thank the UF library system for closing Library

West in December 2003 and keeping it closed until August 2006. A dissertation is a

challenging thing to begin with, but when scholars do not have easy access to research

materials, it becomes a more harrowing task that one can explain.