000			04677cam a22004938i 4500
001			on1334884890
003			OCoLC
005			20230330142331.0
008			221020t20232022nyua e b 001 0 eng
010			_a 2022049307
040			_aDLC _beng _erda _cDLC _dBDX _dOCLCF _dUKMGB _dIEB _dJAS _dJVK _dRNL _dIMT _dNFG
015			_aGBC325763 _2bnb
016	7		_a020950609 _2Uk
019			_a1372401511
020			_a9781541673564 _q(hardcover)
020			_a1541673565 _q(hardcover)
035			_a(OCoLC)1334884890 _z(OCoLC)1372401511
042			_apcc
043			_an-us---
092			_a320.5209 _bD146
049			_aNFGA
100	1		_aDallek, Matthew, _d1969- _eauthor.
245	1	0	_aBirchers : _bhow the John Birch Society radicalized the American right / _cMatthew Dallek.
246	3	0	_aHow the John Birch society radicalized the American right
250			_aFirst edition.
264		1	_aNew York : _bBasic Books, _c2023.
264		4	_c©2022
300			_avii, 370 pages : _billustrations ; _c24 cm
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
336			_astill image _bsti _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 295-351) and index.
505	0		_aIntroduction -- "God's angry men" -- "Some rather frightening aspects" -- Witch hunt -- Shock troops -- "A dirty war" -- Birch watchers -- "Little old ladies in tennis shoes" -- Fringe -- Succession -- Crack-up -- Takeover -- Radicalization -- Conclusion.
520			_a"Founded in 1958 by a small band of anti-New Deal businessmen, the John Birch Society held that a vast communist conspiracy existed within America and posed an existential threat to the country. Birchers railed against the federal government, defended segregation, and accused liberal elites of conspiring to destroy the country's core values--Christianity, capitalism, and individual freedom. Shunned by the political establishment and mainstream media, the organization invented new methods for reaching mass audiences and spread their paranoid anti-government ideology nationwide. Although seen as a fringe movement throughout the 1960s and considered all but dead by the mid-1970s, the John Birch Society in fact birthed an alliance uniting super-rich business titans with grassroots activists that lasts to this day. In Birchers, historian Matthew Dallek uncovers how the Birchers, once the far-right fringe of American politics, forged a conspiratorial, media-savvy style of conservatism that would ultimately take over the Republican Party. Drawing on thousands of archival documents, Dallek traces how an elite coterie of white businessmen kickstarted a national grassroots movement of devout, upwardly mobile defenders of the status quo, who feared the expansion of the welfare state, the advance of communism overseas, and growing calls for racial and gender equality. Ultraconservative propaganda produced by these elites, Dallek shows, radicalized white homeowners, housewives, and middle-class professionals and inspired them to relentlessly push a handful of fringe causes through direct action techniques, such as phone banking, letter writing, and public protest. Liberal critics dismissed the organization as unserious and assumed the far right was destined for failure, but they underestimated the society's depth of support. Most Birchers were in fact affluent, educated, skilled political operatives for whom the movement had touched a chord. Recognizing the strength of these voters, the Republican Party accommodated their extremism, wooed them for money and votes, and gave them a political home long after the John Birch Society had ceased to exist. When the Republican establishment lost credibility following the '08 financial crisis, however, party leaders lost their control over this powerful fringe tradition. Drawing on Birchers' anti-establishment precedent, far-right politicians like Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, and Marjorie Taylor Green were able to thrive and ultimately dominate the GOP electoral coalition in the 2010s. Deeply researched and full of insight, Birchers is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the growth of right-wing extremism in the United States"-- _cProvided by publisher.
650		0	_aConservatism _zUnited States _xHistory. _929201
610	2	0	_aJohn Birch Society _xHistory.
650		0	_aRight-wing extremists _zUnited States _xHistory.
600	1	0	_aWelch, Robert, _d1899-1985.
651		0	_aUnited States _xPolitics and government. _9196
650		0	_aRadicalism _zUnited States. _971543
650		0	_aPolitical culture _zUnited States. _915197
994			_aC0 _bNFG
999			_c365154 _d365154