Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort

by Matthew N. Lyons and Chip Berlet

Book Overview

White supremacist violence, QAnon, the MAGA movement--how did the United States get to where we are today? This enduring work offers a panoramic view of right-wing populism in the United States from the Colonial period through the 20th century. Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons show how anti-elitist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and ethnic scapegoating have influenced mainstream politics and culture throughout our history, far more than most Americans...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572305622
• ISBN13: 9781572305625
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Guilford Publications
• Length: 499 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Analysis, if a little overwrought

Anti-intellectualism has always driven the right-wing of American politics. Coupled with "Nativism", racism, and a whole host of chauvinistic "-isms", the right-wing has always been a dangerously regressive movement that threatens to undo the work of the founders and destroy the Constitution. Read this book - and know America's internal enemies.

Such difficult truths

'If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear' - Orwell.Defensive and reactionary negative reviews of this book do not take away from the very relevant and necessary content of it. The fact that it hits a little close to home for some actually validates it, as the a authors argue (and rightly so) that dangerous right-wing populism doesn't just exist in so-called extremist neo-fascist groups such as the KKK (the KKK can hardly be considered a threat to anything anymore, mind you) and skinheads, but also in the back yards of suburban North America. It is now the American norm. Extremism as a mainstream ideology.Read this book.

Necessary Reading in Today's America

A balanced historical account of a skein of American political thought that the authors argue persuasively is far more mainstream than most observers would want to believe. It's interesting to read down some of the other contributions in the "Reader Reviews" and see how defensive some of the responses are. The reason this type of reaction is surprising is that there is nothing accusatory or inflammatory in this book's rhetoric and it is exhaustively and accurately researched. Demagogues of the left like the "populist" Andrew Jackson (here debunked as a genocidal Indian fighter and tool of private banking interests) and Louisiana's Depression era Kingfish Huey Long share page space with more recent anti-government bogies of the modern American right like David Duke and Pat Buchanan, and the co-opting of themes sounded by Right Wing populists like (Democrat) George Wallace by modern Republican presidents like Richard Nixon is honestly depicted. What this book does not do is paint all people on the Republican side of the ledger as extremists. But when its chronology reaches contemporary times, it does recognize that the Republican Party has become a haven for or at least a tolerant silent partner in many of the ideas -- hatred of government, immigrant-bashing, the elevation of business interests at the expense of individual liberties, apocalyptic Christianity that seeks to impose a religious ideal on secular American society -- that have fueled anti-democratic Right Wing populist movements since the 1830s. Not to recognize this would be less than honest, since the whole point of this book is to demonstrate the continuity of Right-Wing Populism as an organizing principle of American political discourse. A sober, exhaustive and excellent piece of work for readers on BOTH SIDES of the political fence. If left-wingers can read "The Closing of the American Mind" as a challenge to their assumptions, those of the right should consider doing the same with this fine piece of work.

Thanks, I needed that

Right Wing Populism in America is a tonic for thinking people whose minds are stuffed with too much bad sociology. Chip Berlet has been a front line reporter, editor and lay scholar of rightist movements in the U.S. for a generation. Berlet and Lyons' prodigious knowledge of conservative movements in the U.S. puts to shame so many academics whose dusty theories have little relevance to the dynamics of modern conservative movements. This book will help wring out of the fearful academy the kind of lively, informed and fair-minded dialog and debate that liberal education is supposed to be about. The faculty member who teaches from this book will find his or her classes growing in popularity. For the supplementary reading list, add: Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, by Frederick Clarkson, and books by Russ Bellant, Sara Diamond, Robert Boston, and Jean Hardisty -- and deadly classrooms will be lively, well informed, and deeply engaged in the stuff of which education is made.Unfortunately, cheap accusations and smear tactics are being used against this worthy text. Don't believe them. Read it, and arrive at your own conclusions. The rabid unthinking attacks on this book may very well be sourced to the kind of narrowly demagogic rightwing populism that the book so accurately and clearly describes.This book has become all the more essential in the wake of 9/11. Anti-immigrant and religious bigotry are significant ripple effects that we will be dealing with for years to come. This book helps place in perspective the rightist movements fueled by such reactionary sentiments.

Background and insights on conspiracy theory

Right-wing militia and other anarchist organizations have received renewed attention since the Oklahoma City bombing: Right-Wing Populism in America examines their historical roots and current operations in this country, with two leading political analysis providing the background and insights on conspiracy theory, ethnic scapegoating and other movement trademarks. From the Ku Klux Klan to nationalist cliques, this provides an important consideration of sentiments and motivations.