Overview

How a notorious far right organization set the Republican Party on a long march toward extremism At the height of the John Birch Society's activity in the 1960s, critics dismissed its members as a paranoid fringe. After all, ""Birchers"" believed that a vast communist conspiracy existed in America and posed an existential threat to Christianity, capitalism, and freedom. But as historian Matthew Dallek reveals, the Birch Society's extremism remade American conservatism. Most Birchers were white professionals who were radicalized as growing calls for racial and gender equality appeared to upend American life. Conservative leaders recognized that these affluent voters were needed to win elections, and for decades the GOP courted Birchers and their extremist successors. The far right steadily gained power, finally toppling the Republican establishment and electing Donald Trump. Birchers is a deeply researched and indispensable new account of the rise of extremism in the United States.

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9781541673564

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Before MAGA, there was the John Birch Society, an organization known to many but understood by very few. Matthew Dallek has penetrated the fog. His superbly researched and well-written history shows us exactly who the Birchers were and why they mattered--and still matter today. --Sam Tanenhaus, author of The Death of Conservatism In Cold War America, no organization on the right was larger or more influential than the John Birch Society. Matthew Dallek's perceptive, engrossing narrative reveals as never before how a group funded by wealthy businessmen and organized at the grassroots level changed the Republican Party--and the nation. Birchers is one of the best and most essential histories of modern conservatism that has ever been written. --Michael Kazin, author of What It Took to Win

Before MAGA, there was the John Birch Society, an organization known to many but understood by very few. Matthew Dallek has penetrated the fog. His superbly researched and well-written history shows us exactly who the Birchers were and why they mattered--and still matter today. ----Sam Tanenhaus, author of The Death of Conservatism

Author Information

Matthew Dallek is a professor at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. The author of The Right Moment and Defenseless Under the Night, his writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, the Atlantic, and others. He lives in Washington, DC.

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