Professor Jeff Roche’s new book about West Texas’ role in the rise of US conservatism earns national attention
Jeff Roche, professor of history at The College of Wooster, wrote a new book that’s earned national attention, titled The Conservative Frontier: Texas and the Origins of the New Right. Published by University of Texas Press, the book gives a grass-roots history of how West Texas business and culture molded the rise of conservatism in the United States. Roche was the guest on NPR’s “Think” podcast on Oct. 7, and has earned reviews in The New York Times and The Dallas Morning News, among other major outlets.
Roche’s book uncovers answers around how the people of a vast, single-state region could develop such a political culture, and one that went national. “At its heart, the book is a century-long history of how a place develops its political identity,” said Roche. He explains that at the core of that identity is a political philosophy that’s founded on individual freedom. Now found from Texas to Alberta, Canada, this conservativism gained cultural power from the history and mythology of the Old West.
“In practice, particularly in the mid-twentieth century, these conservatives voiced their opposition to civil rights, aid programs, labor unions, and any challenges to the cultural or social status quo, especially when it came to race, sexuality, or gender,” said Roche. “This book explains how this philosophy eventually took over the Republican Party as right-wing conservatives took over the party at the local level in Texas and elsewhere.”
By reconstructing the West Texas region’s history starting in 1876, Roche helps readers understand the rise of the modern right and the relationships between history, place, and politics. However, the book follows more than political power players. Roche digs into football coaches, newspaper editors, and even a breakfast cereal tycoon who each promoted the ideology.
“I got to create a fresh narrative for the best ways to understand the past of this huge place, which is bigger than New England, and reimagine how to tell well-known stories and events like the cattle business, the Dust Bowl, fights over textbooks, and even the rise of Reagan.”
The idea for the book grew out of an old dissertation Roche wrote more than twenty years ago. “I was part of a generation of political historians who were seriously interested in the rise of right-wing Republicanism, post Rise of Reagan,” he said. “My goal was to put place at the center of that movement. And since the 1960s, West Texas has been known as the most right-wing conservative place in America.”
Roche appreciates the true partnership he experienced working with the University of Texas Press, saying they’ve been amazing to work with from the initial proposal to designing the cover. “It’s Wooster’s leave program and other ways of supporting its teachers/scholars that make scholarship like this possible,” he said.
Posted in Faculty, News on October 9, 2025.
