Ebook: Political conversion: personal transformation as strategic public communication

Acknowledgments -- Introduction : political transformation as a pervasive strategy -- Political conversion as Manichaean deduction : Whittaker Chambers's Witness -- Political conversion as intellectual reduction : Norman Podhoretz's Breaking ranks -- Political conversion as generational induction : David Horowitz's Radical son -- Political conversion as bypassed seduction : Garry Wills's Confessions of a conservative -- Political transformation in U.S. politics -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the author.;This book analyzes political conversion stories as a communication strategy aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the public. Through key cases, it charts the historical and contemporary uses of this strategy as a type of civil-religious persuasion in public discourse, evaluating its features and functions in politics.