Journalists have thoroughly documented David Duke's rise to prominence in Louisiana politics, but until now, few intensive analyses of the Duke phenomenon have been undertaken. This new collection identifies the significant junctures of Duke's political career, from its earliest beginnings to his recent campaigns for Governor, the Senate, and the Presidency. Through a variety of methods and approaches, the contributors to this work advance our understanding of what made this former Klansman a significant political force, and of how and why he very nearly succeeded in his attempts to gain higher office. The authors contend that the racial overtones of the 1950s and 1960s, both explicit and implicit, have returned in the 1990s in a more subtle, polished, and somehow socially acceptable way. They argue convincingly that changes in electoral politics throughout the South provide the structural basis for this "rebirth" of racially charged political campaigns. Even as messenger supplanted message in the rise of David Duke, however, one simple observation remained true: The politics of the South - and Louisiana in particular - remain rooted at least partly in, as V.O. Key phrased it, "the Negro question". The first work to study Duke and the politics of race entirely from a rigorous political science perspective, this collection makes a considerable contribution to our understanding of Duke's popularity, his constituencies, and the reasons for both his successes and his failures.

Southern power and influence in Congress has been on the wane in the latter part of the 20th Century, but as the essayists in this collection suggest, the region appears posed to reclaim its influence. While southern legislative politics is still a product of the region's unique history, political experience, racial legacy, and experience with one-partyism, Congress is one of the primary--if not the paramount--battlegrounds where southern politics are making an impact on the rest of the United States.

This collection of the most recent, critical, and thought- provoking literature, written by some of the leading scholars in southern and legislative politics across the country establishes a paradigm of thinking about southern politics vis-a-vis Congress which illustrates the major issues and impacts this connection is likely to have in future decades. For all scholars and researchers involved with contemporary southern politics, Congressional politics, and U.S. elections.