The Conservative Regime: South Carolina, 1877-1890

First published in 1968, The Conservative Regime: South Carolina, 1877–1890 remains one of the most often cited texts on the era. In the study that inaugurated his distinguished career, William J. Cooper, Jr., addresses two divergent political eras and the powerful figures who shaped them as South Carolina redefined itself in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The 1876 election of former Confederate general Wade Hampton as governor marked the end of Reconstruction and led to the withdrawal of Federal troops from South Carolina and returned the state to one-party Democratic rule under Hampton’s Confederate-veteran "Redeemers," or "Bourbons." Bourbon rule saw limited cooperation with African American leadership, but little in the way of economic growth. Reaction to the do-nothing policies of Hampton and the Bourbons brought the rise of Ben Tillman to the state’s highest office. In this germinal account of the transition of power, Cooper assesses the ideology inherent in the politics of the planter-class Democrats to best understand their ascendance and subsequent downfall.

This edition of The Conservative Regime is augmented by a new preface from Cooper.