The historian of the Republican Party, Heather Cox Richardson, has detailed the origins of what she called "Movement Conservatives" in a couple of her books as well as several articles. The post-war impulse was pioneered by William Buckley, Jr. and his schizophrenic brother-in-law L. Brent Bozell under the shadow of McCarthy. It effectively went mainstream with Goldwater. See, "How the South Won the Civil War" among others.