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.

Don Waisanen is associate professor in the Baruch College, CUNY Marxe School of Public and International Affairs.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Political Transformation as a Pervasive Strategy
Chapter 1: Political Conversion as Manichaean Deduction: Whittaker Chambers's Witness
Chapter 2: Political Conversion as Intellectual Reduction: Norman Podhoretz's Breaking Ranks
Chapter 3: Political Conversion as Generational Induction: David Horowitz's Radical Son
Chapter 4: Political Conversion as Bypassed Seduction: Garry Wills's Confessions of a Conservative
Chapter 5: Political Transformation in U.S. Politics
Bibliography
Index
About the Author