Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort [Paperback]

Chip Berlet (Author), Matthew N. Lyons (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572305622 | ISBN-13: 978-1572305625 | Publication Date: November 1, 2000 | Edition: 1

Right-wing militias and other antigovernment organizations have received heightened public attention since the Oklahoma City bombing. While such groups are often portrayed as marginal extremists, the values they espouse have influenced mainstream politics and culture far more than most Americans realize. This important volume offers an in-depth look at the historical roots and current landscape of right-wing populism in the United States. Illuminated is the potent combination of anti-elitist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and ethnic scapegoating that has fueled many political movements from the colonial period to the present day. The book examines the Jacksonians, the Ku Klux Klan, and a host of Cold War nationalist cliques, and relates them to the evolution of contemporary electoral campaigns of Patrick Buchanan, the militancy of the Posse Comitatus and the Christian Identity movement, and an array of millennial sects. Combining vivid description and incisive analysis, Berlet and Lyons show how large numbers of disaffected Americans have embraced right-wing populism in a misguided attempt to challenge power relationships in U.S. society. Highlighted are the dangers these groups pose for the future of our political system and the hope of progressive social change.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book shines brilliant light on right-wing populist movements that have undermined democracy throughout U.S. history--and are still influencing politics and policies today. The book shows how populist rhetoric has been used by far-right and mainstream politicians alike to divide people with scapegoating and deflect them from achieving greater social and economic equity." --Holly Sklar, author of Chaos or Community?: Seeking Solutions, Not Scapegoats for Bad Economics

"This long-awaited history and critical analysis has arrived right on time. The increased presence of the Right in this country has confused many people with its varied shapes and forms. This book gives the context needed for students and monitors of the Right to understand why these antidemocratic forces continue to thrive in our society." --Suzanne Pharr, author of In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation, and Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism

"This book makes significant strides toward a greater understanding of right-wing social movements in the United States. Berlet and Lyons present a holistic sociopolitical history that avoids many common theoretical pitfalls and oversimplifications. Instead of separating right-wing organizations into 'mainstream' and 'extremist' groups, these authors examine shades of populist ideologies that lead to both convergence and contradiction on the American political landscape. Their timely and compelling arguments lead us to reevaluate our definitions of these social movements and call for a reexamination of ineffective social policies aimed at containing right-wing groups. This accessible and engaging book is appropriate for use in undergraduate and graduate classes and will also be useful for a more general readership." --Stephanie Shanks-Meile, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Indiana University Northwest

"Chip Berlet has been a valuable resource for many years to everyone concerned about the potentially dangerous right-wing ideological strains that operate in this country. His work with Political Research Associates has been a most important source of data and analysis. Now he and Matthew Lyons have made yet another major contribution. Right Wing Populism in America builds on their years of expertise to provide a sweeping historical account of the tradition of such tendencies in American politics....This is an important analysis for everyone--scholars and nonspecialists alike--who wishes to understand the complex, sometimes ugly forces that have participated in shaping the American political landscape." --Adolph Reed, Jr., author of Class Notes

About the Author

Chip Berlet has written about right-wing movements for over 20 years, with bylines in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Progressive, and scores of other publications. He is senior analyst at Political Research Associates in Somerville, MA, and editor of Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash. He has contributed articles and chapters to several scholarly books and journals and his media appearances and citations as an expert include Newsweek, National Public Radio, and Nightline.

Matthew N. Lyons is a historian, activist, and writer whose work has focused on systems of oppression and social movements. He is research associate for the Hansberry-Nemiroff Archival, Educational, and Cultural Fund, and author of The Grassroots Network: Radical Nonviolence in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1972-1985.

[Update note as of 12/01:] Matthew Lyons lives in Philadelphia, is an archivist at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and received a Master of Library
Service from Rutgers University in 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 499 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572305622
• ISBN-13: 978-1572305625
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chip Berlet, an investigative journalist and independent scholar, coauthored the book Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort (Guilford 2000). From 1981-2011 he was senior analyst at Political Research Associates. Berlet's byline has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Des Moines Register, Columbia Journalism Review, Amnesty Now, Mother Jones, The Nation, The Progressive, Tikkun, Greenpeace Magazine, and In These Times.

Other works have appeared in Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, Contemporary Sociology, American Anthropologist, and Research in Political Sociology. His article about right-wing conspiracy theories, "Fears of Fédéralisme in the United States," appeared in Fédéralisme Régionalisme; and he co-authored the Encyclopaedia Judaica's entry on "Neo-Nazism."

In 2012 the University of California press will publish his chapter on the US Tea Party movement. Other chapters include "The United States: Messianism, Apocalypticism, and Political Religion" in The Sacred in Twentieth Century Politics: Essays in Honour of Professor Stanley G. Payne (Palgrave Macmillan 2007); and "The New Political Right in the United States: Reaction, Rollback, and Resentment," in Confronting the New Conservatism: The Rise of the Right in America, (NYU Press 2008).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Reading in Today's America, November 5, 2004

By 

Vampire Truth (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort (Paperback)

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.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive and Exhausting, September 21, 2001

By 

Panopticonman "panopticonman" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort (Paperback)

The schematic that Berlet and Lyons propose to categorize various right wing populist movements throughout American history in the beginning of this exhaustive and exhausting survey is a fairly reasonable analytical tool. The problem is that it tends to constrain the historical analysis because each group, introduced in sequence, must be fitted into it's proper place within the scheme. It wears thin pretty fast.

They've done their research, they cite the right authors, they dig deeply into the past, but soon it's all merely additive, not insightful. It works like this: first a description of this movement, then this one, both of which shared some traits, then this one which developed a new means of expressing their xenophobia, etc. What it all adds up to is that any insights about these groups, or their proliferation, tend to be located within a fairly narrow range of observation.

Still it's a good reference work, and, if you're interested in the learning some of the tactics used by these groups to destroy the last vestiges of the neoliberal orthodoxy, to draw boundaries around groups who are not white, not male, not Christian, not true Americans, this book is a good place to start.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor history, better political analysis, May 7, 2001

By 

"maw23" (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort (Paperback)

As a sympathetic reader, I was somewhat disappointed by this book. The first 8 chapters, which are a historical outline of right-wing populist movements, attempt to cover so much material that many controversial assertions are unsupported by examples or documentation. Lyons seems to find evidence for right wing movements among any group that ever expressed a racist thought (which includes most groups in earlier American history).

The second half of the book, dealing with modern developments, is much better, partly because Berlet has a more narrow focus and more space to develop his ideas. Still, he goes too far occasionally when he implies that everyone who holds traditional American Christian beliefs (such as traditional, heterosexual families, the return of Christ to the earth, divine inspiration in the writing of the Constitution) is part of this right-wing movement. It is important to distinguish between people whose Christian values lead them to oppose abortion, reform welfare and decry the degeneration of popular culture,while supportive of our nation,and those who are out to eliminate our pluralistic society and replace it with much more theocratic leadership.

In spite or these reservations, this book should frighten anyone who follows American politics today. These authors persuasively argue that the anti-democratic ideas we normally associate with extremists have integrated themselves into the mainstream, and have a suprisingly large influence in our politics. Hillary Clinton's comment about a 'vast, right-wing conspiracy' may have been overstated, but readers of this book will see that she wasn't that far off the mark.