Strom Thurmond and the Politics of Southern Change

This respectful biography traces South Carolina Senator Thurmond's career from his status as a ``consummate white reactionary'' to that of a savvy politician who courts black voters. Cohodas, a former staffer for Congressional Quarterly , reconstructs Thurmond's long political career, from judge to governor to senator, and describes his political strategies, including his pork-barrel politics. And she interweaves Thurmond's career with the story of civil rights conflicts in the South. But her interviews with Thurmond reveal little, and she does not probe his colleagues. Also, while Cohodas occasionally sees ironies in Thurmond's political transformation, her conclusion that his support of black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas symbolizes a major change is undermined by Thomas's conservatism. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)