The 1938 "Purge" campaign in South Carolina and southern political culture in the New Deal era

This thesis is a political analysis of Franklin D.Roosevelt's 1938 "Purge" campaign in South Carolina.This Thesis examines the roles and reactions of South Carolina'sSenators Ellison D. Smith and James F. Byrnes to Roosevelt's Intervention in state politics. This thesis asks why Byrnes,a pro-New Deal Roosevelt confidant aided the old demagogueSmith and helped him win South Carolina's 1938 Democratic Primary, and concludes that Byrnes had one foot in the modern,progressive, new South while one foot remained mired in the old South's political culture.

This thesis also scrutinizes southern political culture in the New Deal era. What do the reactions of Byrnes, Smithand other South Carolinians to the "Purge" effort tell us about southern political culture? This thesis examines WilburJ. Cash's and J. Morgan Kousser's explanation of southern political culture, and concludes that South Carolina in 1938 manifests a synthesis of both models. The "Purge" campaign inSouth Carolina revealed a southern political culture that flowed out of the shared historical experiences of SouthCarolinians only to be reaffirmed by the state's restrictive political measures introduced at the end of the nineteenth century and still viable in 1938.

This thesis utilizes manuscript collections, newspapers, and various secondary sources.