New Deal / New South

Badger, Anthony J.; Lewis, Jane

doi:10.2307/j.ctt1ffjgbp

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…While Kaiser promoted himself as the "Builder of the American West", so Richard S. Reynolds Snr (and Reynolds Metals) profited from promoting their role as an industrial leader in the "New South". 33 Reynolds' family connections to the DNC in the South were invaluable in a period when the US legislature was dominated by senior Southern Democrats. As Richard Bensel observed, "Deep South constituencies were over-represented within the Democratic Party and even more concentrated in the higher seniority of the separate committees."…”

Section: Reynolds and Us Business-government Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was, in contrast, to the "conservative businessmen and their allies" in the South of the 1950s and 1960s, pursuing a "conservative segregationist" agenda. 127 Many of Reynolds senate allies supported segregation (in most cases enthusiastically, in others as a political expedient), while swimming against the tide in their commitment to New Deal institutions. However, RSR Jnr donated funds to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in the early 1950s.…”

Section: Rhetorical Platforms and Deploying Assetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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This Thing Called Goodwill: The Reynolds Metals Company and Political Networking in Wartime America

Perchard

2019

Enterp. Soc.

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This article examines the Reynolds Metals Company’s political networking activities in Washington, D.C., and the state capitals of the U.S. South in the 1940s and 1950s. It argues that Reynolds’ astute recruitment of senior staff from federal and state governments, its adept building of elite networks in the legislative and executive branches, its judicious espousing of key political rhetoric (antitrust, regional development, national security), as well as its nurturing of Democratic circles in the South were crucial to their attainment of competitive advantage. This saw the company rise from being a new entrant in the U.S. primary aluminum production during World War II to the second-largest national producer by 1946 and a major global player by the mid-1950s. This same political networking was critical in maintaining that advantage after World War II in the face of competition from the Aluminum Company of America and the Canadian multinational Aluminium Company of Canada. Both “wartime” (covering the period from World War II and into the Cold War) and the legacy of government intervention (from the early twentieth century until the 1960s, including the New Deal) provided a fertile context for RMC’s business strategy. The company’s success owed much to founder Richard S. Reynolds Sr.’s acumen in hiring the right people, creating or joining the right networks, having the right social capital, as well as his experiences and connections accrued from working with his uncle, the noted tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds. The article offers insights into the nature of U.S. business–government relations.

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Section: Reynolds and Us Business-government Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rhetorical Platforms and Deploying Assetsmentioning

confidence: 99%