'Zell: We Hardly Knew Ye'

Shortly after taking office as Georgia's appointed United States senator in 2002, following the death of incumbent Republican senator Paul Coverdell, former governor Zell Miller stunned the political world with his tilt away from a moderate-liberal to a conservative politician. He further shocked political leaders, particularly in his own Democratic party, when he openly embraced the candidacy of Republican president George Bush for reelection in 2004. In the interim, Miller voted for most of Bush's conservative agenda in the Congress and lambasted his fellow Democrats, in and out of the Senate, as out of touch with contemporary American values. He also accused Democratic leaders of being overtly biased toward his native South. Most of these views were also expressed in his best-selling book, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat, which was published in 2003. This book investigates what some Democrats have called "the Miller betrayal" in the context of the politics of region, class, gender, and race. It seeks to explain Miller's political turn-about by detailing his southern origins and his devotion to what he and other Southerners view as a unique southern heritage based upon Christian and patriotic values. Professor Hornsby insightfully explores how Miller's "southern values" evolved and changed over time, leading to his oft-times radical swings in positions on major political, economical, and social issues. Prior to his term as senator in Washington, Miller had already acquired the name "Zig-Zag Zell" as a two-term Georgia governor. While political leaders and journalists alike have exhaustively attempted to explain Zell's baffling political conversion, this is the first work to study the topic, derived from what scholars have defined as "southernism", in terms of basic historical and contemporary issues.

Alton Hornsby Jr. is a Fuller E. Callaway Professor of History at Morehouse College. He edited the Journal of Negro History for 25 years, is the author of several books in addition to scholarly articles, essays, and book reviews, and is the president of the Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists and the Southern Conference on African American Studies.