Right-wing resistance to the process of American hegemony: the changing political geography of nativism in Pennsylvania, 1920-1998

The process of hegemony requires the construction of a new and dynamic prim e modernity in the capitalist world-economy. Such a process produces new so cial relations and, therefore, dislocations that invoke political reaction within the hegemonic power. In the case of American hegemony a new urban-ba sed modernity marginalized rural areas and led to the establishment of subu rbia as the centerpiece of American modernity. Two periods of nativism illu strate the social dislocations at the beginning and end of American hegemon y, Ku Klux Klan activity in the 1920s and hate crimes in the 1990s. Using d ata for the state of Pennsylvania, the geography of 1920s Klan activity is contrasted with the geography of reported hate crimes in the 1990s. The two spatial patterns illustrate that nativism was a rural phenomena in the 192 0s and a suburban phenomena in the 1990s. Nativism at the beginning of Amer ican hegemony was a reaction to the new modernity being defined in urban ce nters. As American hegemony experienced a decline, nativist reaction was fo und in the social setting that epitomized American consumer modernity, subu rbia. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.