Becoming Right

Amy J. Binder is professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of Contentious Curricula: Afrocentrism and Creationism in American Public Schools (Princeton). Kate Wood is an independent scholar.

"[G]roundbreaking."--Publishers Weekly "A deep dive into the under-examined world of campus conservatives, Amy J. Binder and Kate Wood's book can feel like an anthropological account of a disappearing tribe... Binder and Wood's findings add an important dimension to our understanding of the right. The last two decades have seen historians and political scientists extensively study the rise of conservatism. A trenchant addition to that literature, Becoming Right offers a thick description of the state of college conservatism and explains the factors that shape the student--and, it follows, the citizen. The authors' interrogations leave the promise of a better politics hanging in the air: if Binder and Wood are accurate in their depictions, campus cultures that seek to build a stronger sense of community and ideological tolerance could be one key to a more civil national discourse. The book also enriches our understanding of the right's mentality... Becoming Right yields many valuable insights about the possible future of conservatism. But the vision this illuminating book most vividly conjures is the depressing present of conservatism: ugly, unyielding, and provocative to the point of nihilism."--Elbert Ventura, New Republic "In Becoming Right, Amy Binder and Kate Wood provide an in-depth and informative examination of who the conservatives are, the impact of campus culture on the formation of their identities and activist styles, and the implications for the direction of U.S. politics."--Glenn Altschuler, Boston Globe "[I]f the intellectual interest of this book is the demonstration of how much influence the kind of university has on its students' political culture, a pleasure for the reader is the revelation of the sheer good nature of so many of the study's interviewees; they come across as pretty muddled on many issues but astonishingly rarely as nasty."--Alan Ryan, Times Higher Education "[A] nice discussion of the larger field of conservative politics and how that affects campus protest. Overall, a solid book and one that's essential to studies of campus politics."--Fabio Rojas, Orgtheory.net "Their book [is an] excellent, engaging, well written, and carefully researched study of the ways culture works in and through schools."--Lisa M. Stulberg, Contexts "In their important contribution to the scholarship on modern American conservative movement politics, Binder and Wood analyze the varying experiences of conservative student activists on university campuses. The book succeeds on multiple levels."--Choice "[T]he book is masterfully constructed and extensive in its articulation of the styles of young conservatives and how these diverge into political classes that may share many political beliefs but nevertheless seem worlds apart."--Jeremy Freese, American Journal of Sociology "[T]his study offers as ... insight ... and permits ... questions to reemerge [that] make this book an important and exciting contribution."--Gregory Smulewicz-Zucker, Critical Sociology "Becoming Right is a valuable sociological contribution to the scholarship on American conservatism, and a book that should definitely be read by everyone who studies conservatives."--Louis Prisock, Social Forces "The fact that this study offers as much insight as it does and permits such questions to reemerge makes this book an important and exciting contribution."--Gregory Smulewicz-Zucker, Critical Sociology

• Preface ix Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Who Are Conservative Students? 29 Chapter 3: Sponsored Conservatism: The Landscape of National Conservative Organizations 76 Chapter 4: How Conservatives Think about Campus: The Effects of College Reputations, Social Scenes, and Academics on Student Experience 113 Chapter 5: Provoking Liberals and Campaigning for Republicans: Two Conservative Styles at the Western Public Universities 161 Chapter 6: Civilized Discourse, Highbrow Provocation, and a Fuller Embrace of Campaigning: Three Conservative Styles at Eastern Elite University 213 Chapter 7: Conservative Femininity 270 Chapter 8: The Theory behind the Findings: How Studying College Conservatives Extends Our Understanding of Higher Education, Politics, and Culture 309 Notes 327 References 363 Index 381