Kansas Press Publishes New Book by BU PhD Seth Blumenthal
The University Press of Kansas has just published Children of the Silent Majority: Young Voters and the Rise of the Republican Party, 1968-1980. Currently Senior Lecturer in the BU Writing Program, Blumenthal unearths the remarkable, largely unappreciated story of outreach to young voters by Republicans and conservatives in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on his BU dissertation, and extensive research in the archives of multiple presidents and other key figures, the book explains how Nixon’s surprising efforts established a model for a youth campaign that successfully shaped GOP strategy and operations throughout the 1980s. Identifying and defining that effort, the book suggests a new way of appraising and understanding the significance of young voters in elections and in American political life.
