Enemies of the State

D.J. Mulloy is Chair and Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, where he specializes in the study of post-1945 U.S. history. He is the author of American Extremism: History, Politics and the Militia Movement (2004), and The World of the John Birch Society: Conspiracy, Conservatism and the Cold War (2014).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Big Government on the March: FDR and the Roots of the Radical RightChapter 2: Wrestling the Octopus: Anti-Communism and the Radical RightChapter 3: Resisting the Tide: Civil Rights and the Radical RightChapter 4: Out of the Wilderness: Ronald Reagan and the New RightChapter 5: Radicalism Rising: Conspiracies and Anti-Statism at Century’s EndChapter 6: Tea Parties and Trumpism: The Radical Right in the Twenty-First CenturyConclusionA Note on SourcesIndex

In 1951 William Faulker wrote, “The past is never dead.” Nothing is more prophetic than Mulloy’s excellent Enemies of the State, an account of the radical Right in the US. Mulloy takes readers on a journey through the twisted world of right-wing politics. Although many Americans are justifiably worried about the ascendancy of Donald Trump, his rise, according to Mulloy, can be traced to the growth of extremist movements emerging after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. With the extension of the federal government came the birth of the Liberty Lobby and an assortment of organizations opposed to economic and social change. In the 1950s, this opposition was especially evident when it came to challenging the racial status quo, particularly following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Mulloy links those fears, especially the fear of communism demonstrated by the John Birch Society, to the South’s massive resistance to civil rights, a resistance that continues today. Mulloy’s candid account of right-wing radicalism demonstrates that Trumpism is not a new phenomenon, but is in fact directly linked to earlier, less-successful rightist movements. Mulloy’s study is a must for anyone seeking to understand the fracturing of the American political order today. Summing Up: Essential. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates, researchers, faculty, professionals, general readers.