Enemies of the State
The Radical Right in America from FDR to Trump
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- $30.99
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- $30.99
Publisher Description
The rise of the alt-right alongside Donald Trump’s candidacy may be seem unprecedented events in the history of the United States, but D. J. Mulloy shows us that the radical right has been a long and active part of American politics during the twentieth century. From the German-American Bund to the modern militia movement, D. J. Mulloy provides a guide for anyone interested in examining the roots of the radical right in the U.S.—in all its many varied forms—going back to the days of the Great Depression, the New Deal and the extraordinary political achievements of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Enemies of the State offers an informative and highly readable introduction to some of the key developments and events of recent American history including: the fear of the Communist subversion of American society in the aftermath of the Second World War; the rise of the civil rights movement and the “white backlash” this elicited; the apparent decline of liberalism and the ascendancy of conservatism during the economic malaise of the 1970s; Ronald Reagan’s triumphant presidential victory in 1980; and the Great Recession of 2007-08 and subsequent election of President Obama.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mulloy (The World of the John Birch Society: Conspiracy, Conservatism and the Cold War) covers 80 years of far-right conservatism to argue that Trump's success is "a culmination of deeper historical trends and developments, many of them closely related to the history of the American radical right," in a popular history that sacrifices neither nuance nor complexity in its concision. Mulloy identifies the response to FDR's New Deal economic recovery programs during the Great Depression as the beginning of the modern radical right. The book provides brief sketches of key players and groups in a movement "driven by a deep suspicion of the federal government and its role in American society," including 1930s radio personality Father Coughlin, communist-hunting senator Joseph McCarthy, the John Birch Society, Equal Rights Amendment critic Phyllis Schlafly, evangelist Pat Robertson, and the militia movement of the 1990s. At times, "radical right" is amorphously defined, and Mulloy glosses somewhat too shallowly over the emergent "alt-right" movement, but he writes in a clear and accessible style and provides dispassionate scholarly analysis that convincingly supports his thesis. Readers seeking information about the far right will find this book enlightening.
