ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents an overview of key concepts covered in the preceeding chapters of this book. The politics of evolution, as the era of culture wars developed, was increasingly fought out in the state legislatures. Because of the modernist opposition of the federal courts, however, the state anti-modernizers needed a strategy, some mixture of rhetorical, electoral, and legislative tactics to try to reimpose the old-time religion in the schools. As to political loading: The instability of the concepts "liberal" and "conservative" in American politics is well illustrated by the career of "affirmative action". As American history advanced after the war, however, the contradictions within the Democratic coalition began to show. A Cold War between the Western democracies and the Communist world, beginning in 1947, focused much of the attention of successive presidential administrations on a worldwide propaganda battle about the merits of the belief systems and personality systems.
