Journalist Rob Christensen Shares His Book, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics
On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 18, at 9:30 PM

How can a state be represented by Jesse Helms and John Edwards at the same time? In his book The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics, journalist Rob Christensen answers that question and navigates a century of political history in North Carolina, one of the most vibrant and competitive southern states, where neither conservatives nor liberals, Democrats nor Republicans, have been able to rest easy.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, July 18, at 9:30 PM, the News and Observer political reporter shares this new book and explores this eclectic political climate that the author argues enabled North Carolina to rise from poverty in the nineteenth century to become a leader in research, education, and banking in the twentieth.

Although party divisions and the issues of race that often distinguish them are deeply rooted, Christensen explains, North Carolina voters remain loyal to candidates who focus on issues such as education and building a business-friendly infrastructure. With Christensen as a guide, readers may find there is sense after all in the topsy-turvy nature of Tar Heel politics.

“I had been thinking about a book I wanted to read…something that would tie everything together,” says Christensen. “Politics in North Carolina was like stepping back in history, and I saw all these little threads and I wanted to put it all together…and answer some real questions about several political paradoxes.”

In answering these questions, Christensen takes us to picket lines and debates and through numerous red-baiting and race-baiting political campaigns. Along the way we are introduced to many remarkable characters, including a U.S. senator who was a Nazi sympathizer, a candidate for governor who was a Soviet agent, a senator who helped bring down Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon, and a TV commentator who helped usher in the Reagan Revolution.

Rob Christensen has covered North Carolina politics for thirty-four years at the News and Observer in Raleigh.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Rob Christensen on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 18, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, July 20, at 5 PM.

During the 26-week season of North Carolina Bookwatch, guests will also include:  Frances Mayes (A Year in the World), Robert Morgan (Boone), Eleanora Tate (Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance), Eric Wilson (Against Happiness), Wayne Caldwell (Cataloochee), Theda Perdue (The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears), Bernie Harberts (Too Proud to Ride a Cow), Jean Anderson (A Love Affair with Southern Cooking), Joe Glatthaar (General Lee's Army), Tony Earley (The Blue Star), JD Rhoades (Breaking Cover), Therese Fowler (Souvenir), Cindy Ramsey (Boys of the Battleship North Carolina), Anna Rubino (Queen of the Oil Club), Nancy Peacock (A Broom of One's Own), Louise Hawes (Black Pearls), and Nortin Hadler (Worried Sick).

For additional information about series guests and airdates, plus links to the Bookwatch blog and online book club, please visit: www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Funding for North Carolina Bookwatch is provided by UNC-TV members and by Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh’s independent, full service bookstore, bringing readers and writers together since 1984.

North Carolina Bookwatch is part of UNC-TV’s ongoing commitment to produce programs for and about North Carolina. UNC-TV is the statewide 11-station broadcast network of the University of North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

For more information about North Carolina Bookwatch and UNC-TV’s other original productions, please visit our website at www.unctv.org.