The Dynamic Dominion: Realignment and the Rise of Virginia's Republican Party Since 1945

By Frank B. Atkinson

The Dynamic Dominion tells the dramatic story of Virginia's political transformation since the Second World War. The cradle of American democracy and thus of the democratic movement that is sweeping the globe today the venerable Old Dominion has emerged again in the second half of the 20th century as a dynamic political pacesetter for the nation.
Virginia today has become a national bellwether, studied by political analysts and strategists in both parties for clues to the direction of the nation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0913969397
• ISBN13: 9780913969397
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: University Press Of America
• Length: 534 Pages
• Weight: 1.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.1" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Title does not go far enough...

The Dynamic Dominion is more than a history of the rise of the GOP in Virginia. It takes up where J. Harvie Wilkinson left off and serves as the definitive political history of Virginia through the early 1990's. Unlike Mr. Wilkinson's book, which was dominated by statistics and voting patterns showing the changes that occured during the Byrd Machin tenure, Mr. Atkinson includes a wealth of material that was derived through interviews with actual participants in these events. This is simply THE BOOK for anyone interested in post World War II Virginia politics, as well as those interested in southern politics. I too look forward to an updated version of this book, especially in view of the GOP taking the state legislature. But I think a real challenge would be to unleash Frank's clear talents on a biography of Henry Howell, who many credit with being the political force that caused the Virgnia democracy to tack far enough to the left to allow the GOP to become competitive in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Dynamic Account

Mr. Atkinson is a partisan Republican. He is upfront about it in his author's bio on the book's dustjacket, which mentions his numerous positions in the GOP. At times one senses his partisan glee as he chronicles the rise to power of the Republican party in the Old Dominion from the 1960's, when the Civil Rights movement and the administration of LBJ (who carried VA in 1964)identified the Democratic party with extreme liberalism, until the early 1990's, when Republican stock continued to soar statewide and nationwide. For the most part though he maintains objectivity and gives his readers a gripping account of this very important political transformation.At times the book has the tension of a good thriller, along the lines of Advise and Consent or The Manchurian Candidate. Certainly Atkinson presents to us a genuine cast of characters and a series of ups and downs, successes and failures, conflicts and confrontations one would find in a novel. There is the collapse of the Harry Byrd machine in Virginia, which in election after election had delivered the state solidly to the Democrats; there is the election of Virginia's first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Linwood Holton, a man decidedly not a conservative in a very conservative party in a very conservative state; there is Mills Godwin's agonizing decision to quit a lifetime of membership in the Democratic party and become a Republican in order to stop "wildman" Henry Howell's ascension to the VA governorship; there is Richard Nixon's wholesale attempt to convert scores of conservative Virginia Democrats to the GOP, an effort killed, of course, by Nixon's own Watergate; there is the promise of good things cut short by the tragic deaths of Democrat Sergeant Reynolds and Republicans Richard Obershain and John Dalton; there is John Warner's campaigning for the U.S. Senate with that Hollywood apogee of glamor, Elizabeth Taylor, by his side; there is the appearance of Chuck Robb, as though a white knight upon a steed, to rescue the Democrats from yet another ignominious defeat at the hands of the GOP, and on and on. Atkinson's spares no detail in this very lively account, which portends good news for his party, less good news for us remaining Southern Jeffersonian Democrats.Atkinson's title is a prescient one. In politics, as in much else, Virginia IS dynamic and changing all the time. One would welcome a sequel from Atkinson, or at least an updated edition of this fine book, in light of the election of Republican majorities to the VA legislature in 1999 and the more recent election of Democrat Mark Warner to the governorship, which some observers attribute in part to internecine warfare in the GOP.

A detailed account of the rise of the Republican Party

In 1945, the Republican Party of Virginia was basically dead, having only four members in the 140 member General Assembly - two in the Senate and two in the House of Delegates, but in the last 50 years, the GOP has risen to a status of parity with Virginia's Democrats, who have been the majority party since Reconstruction. The Dynamic Dominion is an excellent account of the early history of the Republican Party's rise to preeminence in the Mother of Presidents. Mr. Atkinson goes into excellent detail about the events that helped to shape the future destiny of the party, especially those following the controversial 1978 State Republican Convention, in particular, the death of US Senate Nominee Richard Obenshain (whose name is still very much revered in Virginia Republican politics today) and the eventual nomination, candidacy, and election of John W. Warner, who was given invaluable assistance in his campaign by none other than famed actress Elizabeth Taylor. I would suggest that Mr. Atkinson's work be made required reading in political science courses at colleges and universities all across the country.