Enemies of the State

Starred review from June 1, 2018

The subtitle captures the essence of this volume on the "radical right," which first emerged from backlash to the New Deal in the 1930s to its contemporary manifestation in the Trump presidency. Mulloy (history, Wilfrid Laurier Univ., Ont.) is well qualified to undertake this broader topic. The first chapter of this newest work deals with the emergence of the American Liberty League and related organizations during the Great Depression. From there, the narrative covers the anticommunist movement during the Cold War and the evolution of the John Birch Society, opposition to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and the rise of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Later chapters detail the Republican Party's move further to the right and the prominence of the Tea Party. A final brief summary situates President Trump into this overall history. VERDICT Though specialists in modern political history know this story, its highly readable and concise presentation will appeal for use in history and political science classrooms, as well as to general readers wondering how Trumpism has developed into a political ideology.--William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 2, 2018
Mulloy (The World of the John Birch Society: Conspiracy, Conservatism and the Cold War) covers 80 years of far-right conservatism to argue that Trump’s success is “a culmination of deeper historical trends and developments, many of them closely related to the history of the American radical right,” in a popular history that sacrifices neither nuance nor complexity in its concision. Mulloy identifies the response to FDR’s New Deal economic recovery programs during the Great Depression as the beginning of the modern radical right. The book provides brief sketches of key players and groups in a movement “driven by a deep suspicion of the federal government and its role in American society,” including 1930s radio personality Father Coughlin, communist-hunting senator Joseph McCarthy, the John Birch Society, Equal Rights Amendment critic Phyllis Schlafly, evangelist Pat Robertson, and the militia movement of the 1990s. At times, “radical right” is amorphously defined, and Mulloy glosses somewhat too shallowly over the emergent “alt-right” movement, but he writes in a clear and accessible style and provides dispassionate scholarly analysis that convincingly supports his thesis. Readers seeking information about the far right will find this book enlightening.

July 1, 2018
How did we get here? Have politics in America ever been as bitter and divisive as they are now? History professor Mulloy traces the path of radical right-wing movements in the U.S. since the New Deal, from fringe to mainstream. The groups discussed often center on the paranoid style of conspiratorial thinking and fear of subversion. Mulloy defines radical as pulling institutions up by the roots and drastically altering government. It is a complex story, and this invaluable book ties together the various strands of extremism, including anti-statism, anti-communism, Fundamentalist Christianity, resistance to desegregation, and the at-times nihilistic obstruction of progress that radicals on the right have perpetuated in various forms since the 1930s. This history emphasizes the similarities among radicals through time, place, and issues. Oddly, Mulloy glosses over much of the second Bush administration and offers only tepid conclusions at the end. Yet, written for a general audience, this account will be of great interest to readers with questions about American politics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)