Using social tensions to explain political movements

David Thelen, in “Social Tensions and The Origins of Progressivism” argues that historians need to be aware of the dangers in approaching complex problems on “rickety psychological foundations.” [Thelen 329]

According to McGirr, the rise of conservatism in Orange County was influenced and driven by social concerns over religion, race, collectivism, and patriotism.  She attributes the Orange Countians turning to conservatism because of psychological motives such as “apprehension over the penetration of liberal ideas into the nation’s schools,”[McGirr 55], and search for community [McGirr 167]. Does McGirr provide enough evidence to support her thesis that social concerns psychologically influenced people to support the conservative movement.

Comments

[Eron Ackerman]

The Right's objections to liberalism in public schools were explicitly voiced by those conservatives, discussed in pamphlets and meetings (from which McGirr draws evidence), and directly acted on (as in the Dvorman conflict). Given that these were convictions about which conservatives held no pretense to the contrary, I do not think they can be considered part of an argument about the role of Psychology, which would typically seek explanations in unconscious desires and unstated motivations not substantiated by direct historical evidence.

You do have a point regarding the "search for community" claim, as McGirr offers little direct evidence that people in southern California suburbs felt cut off from the community, although she does offer a quote from at least one Santa Ana resident expressing such a sentiment (p42). However, the problem of direct evidence here may have to do more with the sources than anything else. How many expressions of community detachment ascribed to the built environment could McGirr have come across in her research? If we require too much evidence before making a claim, we confront the danger of overlooking the many unconscious or 'psychological' factors that DO, in fact, influence people and affect history. In such cases, historians must extrapolate from indirect evidence, and McGirr does this in a manner that gives the 'community' aspect of her thesis a measure of analytical rigor without having to rely on psychology. Since the built environment of consumer-driven suburban development offers few public spaces, people must create community by other means: PTA meetings, Southern Baptist Churches, and the Southern California School of Anti-Communism, to name a few. These social outlets drove the conservative movement and, at the same time, provided a sense of community, which may in turn have obviated expressions of discontent regarding a lack thereof. Thus, even if the lack of community was not experienced PSYCHOLOGICALLY, the substitution of neighborhood public spaces with private religious and political organizations can still be said to have advanced the conservative movement SOCIALLY.