An excellent new book on the Right in the United States is just
out. The title is:
Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in
the United States (ISBN 0-89862-864-4)
The author is Sara Diamond, whose previous book Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right (1989, South End Press,) has become the standard reference on the Christian Right in the United States. The new book expands both the time covered and the range of right-wing movements. With 425 pages packed with facts backed up by 1300 end notes, the book is a gold mine of information.
Here is what the September 25, 1995 edition of Publishers Weekly had to say in its review:
While there have been plenty of books written about the left, scholars haven't paid anywhere near the same attention to the American Right. This book, one of the most sweeping studies of its kind goes a long way toward rectifying the imbalance by delineating the currents of conservative thought from early in this century to today and identifying the groups--from the Ku Klux Klan to contemporary paleo- and neo-conservatives, libertarians, and the Christian right (though, perhaps strangely, not the NRA)--that espouse them. Rather than emphasize such groups extremism, as the media often does, Diamond makes clear their links to mainstream thought and to the political and business interests that sustain them. She makes dozens of crucial connections, showing how members of the Christian right carried out covert activities for the Reagan administration and how figures such as direct-mail wizard Richard Viguerie--whose computerized voting lists have helped Republicans win many Congressional seats--maintain ties to organizations further to the right. In passing, Diamond shows how social theory has failed to account for right-wing movements, but her analysis remains geared to general readers. While her approach may make such groups as the John Birch Society appear more anodyne than liberals would wish, it is both balanced and scholarly; it's the aggregate that is the most alarming. This book should prove a touchstone of future discussions about the right, which is more powerful today than at any time since the 1920s.
It really is a great book. If you can't find it yet at your local bookstore, you can contact The Guilford Press , (800) 365-7006 or staff@guilford.com