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DAYS OF DISCONTENT: AMERICAN WOMEN AND RIGHT-WING POLITICS, 1933-1945

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Agnes Waters, a prominent far right wing agitator of the 1930s and 1940s, had a specific plan of action in mind when she told her supporters that America needed a revolution of mothers to overthrow the Roosevelt regime and his New Deal. "Let's keep a clothesline handy in every little back yard to hang the traitors, or a gun. And let's all of us be known as pistol-packin' mamas." Historian June Melby Benowitz documents the activities of Agnes Waters and other female extremists in "Days of Discontent: American Women and Right-Wing Politics, 1933-1945." The book presents two case studies of far right women, Elizabeth Dilling and the lesser known Grace Wick, before moving on to examine the underlying issues concerning far right females in the 1930s and 1940s. Subsequent chapters trace the development of the mothers' movements, other women leaders, and the activities of these groups and protesters after the Second World War.

Far right women emerged from a tradition of political and social activity stretching back into the early nineteenth century. Women had always been involved in the abolitionist, temperance, and purity crusades of earlier eras. Once they earned the right to vote, disaffection about the process along with the realization that a ballot oftentimes failed to achieve desired results presented women with a quandary, one they resolved by once again falling back on their traditional roles as mothers and as keepers of the country's moral strength. And they continued to form groups in the 1920s, groups that responded to the burning issues of the day. Prohibition, immigration, voting, and declining public morals infuriated millions of traditional women who thought that America was sinking into a cesspool of immorality. It was from this tradition, and from some of the specific groups of the 1920s, that the far right females emerged to rail against blacks, Jews, Roosevelt, and the war.

Women moved to the far right for different reasons. Professional agitator Elizabeth Dilling began her crusade against communism because of a trip she took to the Soviet Union in the 1930s. She saw neglected churches, starving children, and heard sinister plans of a communist invasion of the United States during this visit. Eventually, Dilling linked her anti-communist struggle to a hatred of Jews. Grace Wick, on the other hand, moved into the ranks of the right wing extremists after she lost her job during the Great Depression. Always a political activist, Wick initially welcomed the arrival of Roosevelt in the White House. When the New Deal failed to work for her personally, she turned on the president with a venom instantly recognizable to students of the far right. Wick blamed "Jewish communists" for her misfortune and began corresponding with other extremist leaders. By using Dilling and Wick as case studies, Benowitz shows how different personalities subscribing to different issues could arrive at the same political views.

The issues that drove thousands of women into the arms of the far right were numerous and far ranging. The author employs several sources, including women's magazines and letters written to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, to distill female concerns of the period. One magazine ran a piece about women's lives in Nazi Germany, possibly leading some readers to conclude that life in a totalitarian society offered certain benefits for traditional mothers. Other articles raised debate about the New Deal, the internal threat of communism, anti-Semitism, Christian evangelicalism, immigration, racial integration, and birth control. The public forums these magazines provided forced many women to take positions on these issues or to redefine their previous attitudes. Those women who held extremist positions built associations outside of the mainstream to air their views.
Women like Dilling, Agnes Waters, Lyrl Clark Van Hyning, and Catharine Curtis formed numerous organizations to promote their personal opinions. Benowitz defines at least some of these figures as feminists, as women who sought to expand the economic, social, and political spheres of women beyond the home. The author, while cognizant of the extreme anti-Semitic and racist propositions of these individuals, looks beyond the heated rhetoric to argue that these women served an important function. Just as mainstream and progressive women expanded the roles of their sex, so did far right women. Benowitz goes so far as to propose that Dilling, Clark Van Hyning, and Waters laid the groundwork that future female conservatives would use to air their grievances. Most of the conservatives to come completely rejected the extreme views of their predecessors. Phyllis Schlafly, for example, rejected these mothers' anti-Jewish attitudes while organizing her movements using similar techniques.

A central problem of Benowitz's book concerns feminism, specifically what does or does not constitute feminism and how said term applies to these extremist activists. While almost all of these figures worked closely with like-minded men, they often refused to form concrete ties with male dominated organizations. Keeping Gerald L.K. Smith, Father Coughlin, and other prominent far right men separate from female movements does resemble in more than one way a decidedly feminist mindset. So does the mothers' belief that their groups gave women an outlet for protecting distinctly female prerogatives such as motherhood and homemaking. Benowitz believes that far right women ultimately presented an exception to feminism because they only accepted white, Christian followers who were willing to accept without question the viewpoints of their leaders. Historian Glen Jeansonne in his treatment of female extremists presents a more compelling argument in favor of defining these women as feminists. He questions the very meaning of feminism and calls for a reassessment of the term that will embrace these women. Ultimately, June Melby Benowitz's book is a welcome addition to what was once a little understood facet of 1930s and 1940s protest. Certainly, other books on this fascinating topic will soon follow.