Wrath Of Angels: The American Abortion War [Hardcover]

Jim Risen (Author), Judy L. Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 1998

Abortion has been at the emotional center of America’s culture wars for a generation. Ever since the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision, abortion has in many ways defined American politics, creating an ideological demilitarized zone between liberals and conservatives. Above all, the twenty-five-year war over abortion has been responsible for the most significant social phenomenon of our times—the political and cultural mobilization of Evangelical America. Furthermore, it has served as the lightning rod for the most intense and prolonged debate on the issue of separation of church and state since the founding of the nation.Now for the first time, in a compelling and very human narrative, Wrath of Angels traces the rise and fall of the American anti-abortion movement and reveals its critical role in the creation of the Religious Right. The book explores why the passionate battle to end abortion failed to achieve its goal and yet in the process became one of the most important—and least understood—social protest movements of the twentieth century. The anti-abortion movement was the catalyst that convinced Protestant fundamentalists to end their long cultural isolation, leaving their church pews for the streets. And, while they failed to change the law, they were transformed themselves, emerging as one for the most potent political forces in America at the end of the century.James Risen, an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and Judy L. Thomas, a reporter for the Kansas City Star, are widely acknowledged as the leading journalistic experts on the anti-abortion movement. Their narrative history captures all the drama of the abortion battles of the past twenty-five years and reveals how a movement with its roots in the Catholic left’s antiwar protests of the 1960s was gradually transformed into a rallying point for the newly muscular Religious Right. Wrath of Angels documents the origins of the use of civil disobedience in the anti-abortion movement and offers the definitive explanation of why the movement ultimately descended into violence—and collapsed as a political force. It tells the compelling story of the shootings of abortion doctors in the 1990s and draws upon exclusive interviews with the anti-abortion extremists who have been convicted of these crimes.Anti-abortion activism represents the largest social protest movement since the 1960s. With clarity and objectivity, Risen and Thomas unleash the stormy wrath of angels, the volatile eruption of fundamentalist fury into American politics.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

During the past 25 years, abortion has mobilized conservative Protestant fundamentalists, now a major political force, and it continues to play a role in American politics. Here, journalists Risen and Thomas trace the history of the anti-abortion movement from its beginning in the leftist Catholic antiwar movement, with its opposition to all forms of killing, to its transformation into a splintered, right-wing, fundamentalist movement with violent factions willing to bomb clinics and murder doctors to save the unborn. The authors, who have done extensive research, include interviews with anti-abortion extremists such as Randall Terry, John Bray, and Joan Andrews. The documentary approach makes the book interesting. By focusing on a specific time period, it is less comprehensive than Leslie J. Reagan's When Abortion Was a Crime (Univ. of California, 1997), but the extensive bibliography provides access to more information. Highly recommended for all collections.?Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

In Wrath of Angels, Risen, a Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, and Thomas, a reporter for the Kansas City Star, have written what is far and away the most thorough and knowledgeable history of anti-abortion activism after Roe. -- The New York Times Book Review, David J. Garrow

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (January 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465092721
• ISBN-13: 978-0465092727
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,095,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine 4.5 star effort!, December 26, 2006

By 

Gordon L. Fuglie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War (Paperback)

WOA is journalism as a seamless garment of teamwork. Risen and Thomas (who admirably write in one voice) lay out a chronology of anti-abortion activism that starts in non-violent picketing by a small group of post-Viet Nam war, socially-concerned Catholic pacifists, moving to criminal behavior as impressionable fundamentalists take up and dominate the cause, culminating in violence by the extreme fringe against abortion clinics and assaults and murder perpetrated on abortion providers.

As I write this at the end of 2006, the 1998 paperback edition of this book is being remaindered, and the book may go out of print. This is too bad, as the determination amongst conservative Catholics and right-wing fundamentalists to make the US an anti-abortion society by law continues unabated since WOA's publication. With the centrist rebuke of the Bush government in 2006, one wonders if the increasingly marginalized religious right will once again become desperate enough to condone (or look the other way) a resurgence of violent activism of the sort documented so well by Risen and Thomas in WOA. Readers should be aware that activist anti-abortion forces are willing to achieve their goals by pluralities, not majorities, and by packing local political precincts with single-issue fellow ideologues, not to mention the courts and attorneys general. (I'm writing from Kansas where this is NO small matter)

If there is one book to read on growth of the extreme anti-abortion movement, it should be this one. It humanizes the anti-abortion personalities (John O'Keefe, Joseph Scheidler, John Ryan, Randall Terry, Shelley Shannon, Joan Andrews) in ways that will even surprise staunch abortion rights advocates. WOA has an extensive bibliography to guide interested readers to further information, as well as a section of news photographs (it could have used MORE of these!).

The journalistic style is dynamic, forward moving and vivid, a model of reportage, if not analysis. The reader is free to draw his/her own conclusions. The book is compromised, however, by stopping just short of portraying the religious motivations of the anti-abortion protagonists to the fullest. Even so, it does better by comparison than other works on the subject that simply dismissed the religious ideology that fueled and grew with the rise in anti-abortion activism in the 1980s and early '90s.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and insightful treatment., July 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Wrath Of Angels: The American Abortion War (Hardcover)

Though I am pro-choice, the book does a great service in humanizing the anti-abortion forces and in presenting them as three-dimensional characters, not media stereotypes. As Joel Dyer's Harvest of Rage did (less well) for the militia movement, this book reminds readers that there are real people on both sides of the issue, and that progress is unlikely unless their complexity is taken into account. The journalism is thorough, the writing is clear and graceful, and the story is compelling. An excellent and insightful treatment.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard-hitting, objective, March 1, 1998

By 

Peggy J. Bowman (Peggy Bowman, Wichita, KS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wrath Of Angels: The American Abortion War (Hardcover)

Wrath of Angels is hard-hitting, objective, scary. From governmental agencies more concerned about their egos than solving clinic bombings, to the terrorist praising God in prayer and song while driving from a clinic she just torched, it is not only scary; it is sickening. Whether Catholic or fundamentalist, from the left or the right, blockades or bombings or shootings, these are people who believe they have some message from God to deny women the ability to make personal, medical decisions about their reproductive lives. Each part of the story is told in a way that gives readers the opportunity to make up their own minds and judge for themselves the appropriateness of these actions. Certainly, I knew long before reading this book what I believe. This will likely be true for most readers of this book. But seeing the wrath of these people who see themselves as God's agents documented with such detail and comprehension will, nonetheless, add new and deeper understanding of these people who call themselves "pro-life."