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Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States
How did the American right wing, which began as a small clique of post-World War II conservative intellectuals, transform into well-heeled, grassroots movements representing millions of ordinary citizens? Providing insight into today's headlines, Roads to Dominion answers this question with a compelling and thorough look at the broad range of right-wing movements in this country. Based on research that draws extensively from primary source literature, Sara Diamond traces the development of four types of right-wing movements over the past 50 years\m-\the anticommunist conservative movement, the racist Right, the Christian Right, and the neoconservatives\m-\and provides an astute historical analysis of each. Maintaining a nonjudgmental tone throughout the book, she explores these movements' roles within the political process and examines their relationships with administrations in power.
The book opens with the immediate aftermath of World War II and the onset of the Cold War, when the anticommunist policies of the United States government encouraged the growth of right-wing movements. Continuing through the 1960s and beyond, chapters examine the influence of right-wing groups within the Republican Party and the rise of white supremacist groups in response to the gains of the civil rights movement. We see the transformation of the neoconservatives, from a small band of Cold War liberal intellectuals into a bastion of support for Reagan era foreign policy. The book traces the development of the Christian Right, from its early activity during the Cold War period straight through to its heyday as a powerful grassroots movement during the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout the book, Diamond explains the Right's fifty-year quest for power. She shows how we can understand and even predict the Right's influence on day-to-day policymaking in the United States by observing some consistent patterns in the Right's relationships with political elites and government agencies. In some predictable ways, the Right engages in both conflict and collaboration with state institutions.
The book opens with the immediate aftermath of World War II and the onset of the Cold War, when the anticommunist policies of the United States government encouraged the growth of right-wing movements. Continuing through the 1960s and beyond, chapters examine the influence of right-wing groups within the Republican Party and the rise of white supremacist groups in response to the gains of the civil rights movement. We see the transformation of the neoconservatives, from a small band of Cold War liberal intellectuals into a bastion of support for Reagan era foreign policy. The book traces the development of the Christian Right, from its early activity during the Cold War period straight through to its heyday as a powerful grassroots movement during the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout the book, Diamond explains the Right's fifty-year quest for power. She shows how we can understand and even predict the Right's influence on day-to-day policymaking in the United States by observing some consistent patterns in the Right's relationships with political elites and government agencies. In some predictable ways, the Right engages in both conflict and collaboration with state institutions.
445 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 8, 2015
A dated if utterly crucial book. Published in the Clinton heyday, pre-Moronocracy, this book details the history of the rise and varying strands of America's most rationally irrational and, arguably, most successful, political current. Never has there been a political trend more counter-intuitive and nonsensical than this one, yet which appeals to millions for absolutely no real clear reason. And trust me, I've argued this one into the ground and still never had a satisfactory answer for the appeal, unless it's just on the grounds that being stupid is just easier. And many politicians of all stripes bank on this.
However, the wacky American "Right" deserves special scrutiny because it represents an ironic and, I assume, unintentional fifth column of fundamentalist, authoritarian and racist political dogma in our very midst. The trend is also good at ignoring reality and justifying itself through any matter of wacky, often abstract sky-god-based polemic.
The main theme of the book is how this trend became so salient when the Right is so contradictory: the state is evil but the state is awesome. The state should not interfere in crass capitalistic individualism and shouldn't tax and welfare is bad, etc etc, but the state should be totalitarian and authoritarian and police the world in America's interests. It doesn't get more contradictory than this. Anti-communism was once the unifying cement to allay the contradiction. The bulk of the book focuses on that. Segregation was another issue (ostensibly about state's rights vs evil federal intrusions, but really just racist shitasses trying to preserve "tradition") but once that disappeared, the shift focused to "social issues" like abortion, gay people and so on. Enter the religious right and all that crap. Then communism disappeared and the social issues became even more important.
Now, I'm not going out on a limb when I say that anti-communism was bullshit and exaggerated and much of it outright authoritarian fantasy. Equally, I'm not going out on a limb when I say that "social issues", which do not affect anyone other than the individuals involved, are also outright bullshit. Segregation came and went. So will the other issues. My point, and the book's as well, is that much of rightist rhetoric is manufactured, false, and paranoid, particularly, its religious element, in another supreme irony, which approaches social issues as their ISIS brothers do. Once communism ended, the right needed a raison d'etre and hence, "social issues".
There's a lot to take away and you'll be surprised by much of it. American Nazism, fascist/racist groups, crazy dudes in camo fighting the government and, in a supreme irony, calls for ISIS-like fundamentalism and theocracy. Actually, the last bit is a crucial point because one thing Diamond brings to the fore is the rise and role of the Christian Right and the development of the idea that faith and church is somehow a source of education beyond the state and the state is evil.
Needs an updated edition and maybe an inclusion of the media gutter of the wacky "Right", like Limbaugh, O'Brien and their rational irrational ilk.
However, the wacky American "Right" deserves special scrutiny because it represents an ironic and, I assume, unintentional fifth column of fundamentalist, authoritarian and racist political dogma in our very midst. The trend is also good at ignoring reality and justifying itself through any matter of wacky, often abstract sky-god-based polemic.
The main theme of the book is how this trend became so salient when the Right is so contradictory: the state is evil but the state is awesome. The state should not interfere in crass capitalistic individualism and shouldn't tax and welfare is bad, etc etc, but the state should be totalitarian and authoritarian and police the world in America's interests. It doesn't get more contradictory than this. Anti-communism was once the unifying cement to allay the contradiction. The bulk of the book focuses on that. Segregation was another issue (ostensibly about state's rights vs evil federal intrusions, but really just racist shitasses trying to preserve "tradition") but once that disappeared, the shift focused to "social issues" like abortion, gay people and so on. Enter the religious right and all that crap. Then communism disappeared and the social issues became even more important.
Now, I'm not going out on a limb when I say that anti-communism was bullshit and exaggerated and much of it outright authoritarian fantasy. Equally, I'm not going out on a limb when I say that "social issues", which do not affect anyone other than the individuals involved, are also outright bullshit. Segregation came and went. So will the other issues. My point, and the book's as well, is that much of rightist rhetoric is manufactured, false, and paranoid, particularly, its religious element, in another supreme irony, which approaches social issues as their ISIS brothers do. Once communism ended, the right needed a raison d'etre and hence, "social issues".
There's a lot to take away and you'll be surprised by much of it. American Nazism, fascist/racist groups, crazy dudes in camo fighting the government and, in a supreme irony, calls for ISIS-like fundamentalism and theocracy. Actually, the last bit is a crucial point because one thing Diamond brings to the fore is the rise and role of the Christian Right and the development of the idea that faith and church is somehow a source of education beyond the state and the state is evil.
Needs an updated edition and maybe an inclusion of the media gutter of the wacky "Right", like Limbaugh, O'Brien and their rational irrational ilk.
March 30, 2008
This book is very detailed for anyone wanting to learn more about the New Right and the Republican party. It focuses on libertarians, neoconservatives, Christian movements, the racist right and how all these groups came together in the Repbulican party.
August 12, 2019
Simply put, this is one of the best books I've read on the rise of conservative ideology in America. It was published in the mid-1990s, meaning the last couple of decades are not touched, but it insightfully examines the seeds that have ultimately landed us where we are today.
I first came across this book as a graduate student, and it had one principle that was very useful to me as I worked on papers related to this same subject area: conservatism is opposed to the state as redistributor of wealth or power, and supportive of the state as enforcer of existing social relations. Talk about big vs. small government is a pretext; the thing that matters to the ideology is the protection of privileged classes. Though the decades of history the book covers are interesting, that one insight is the thing that matters most.
Diamond traces the various strands of conservatism as she sees them in the aftermath of World War II. I think her categories are pretty uncontroversial. They include reactionaries driven by the racist response of civil rights, anti-communists, and social conservatives or traditionalists. There is also significant space dedicated to parsing out the differences between neoconservative (mostly former liberals who support an interventionist foreign policy) thought and paleo-conservatives (personified by Pat Buchanan).
These various strands of conservative thought wax and wane over the decades, until the fall of the Berlin Wall sent the entire movement into a bit of a crisis. Certainly these tensions have remained through the present, though the movement as a whole has continued to hang together despite apparent contradictions. Just recently for instance, the dust-up between David Frum and the editors of First Things magazine is pretty typical for the type of intra-movement squabble that this book is concerned with.
The book quotes at length from conservative magazines and pamphlets as evidence for its arguments. It is very much an "intellectual history" that is concerned with animating ideas (I'd call it "constructivist" if I were still in grad school.) To be clear, Diamond herself is quite obviously on the opposite end of the political spectrum as the subjects of her book, though she is professional and academic in her treatment. I found her judgement to be sound throughout.
An all-around impressive book and one of the best I've read on the topic. I've read more than a few.
I first came across this book as a graduate student, and it had one principle that was very useful to me as I worked on papers related to this same subject area: conservatism is opposed to the state as redistributor of wealth or power, and supportive of the state as enforcer of existing social relations. Talk about big vs. small government is a pretext; the thing that matters to the ideology is the protection of privileged classes. Though the decades of history the book covers are interesting, that one insight is the thing that matters most.
Diamond traces the various strands of conservatism as she sees them in the aftermath of World War II. I think her categories are pretty uncontroversial. They include reactionaries driven by the racist response of civil rights, anti-communists, and social conservatives or traditionalists. There is also significant space dedicated to parsing out the differences between neoconservative (mostly former liberals who support an interventionist foreign policy) thought and paleo-conservatives (personified by Pat Buchanan).
These various strands of conservative thought wax and wane over the decades, until the fall of the Berlin Wall sent the entire movement into a bit of a crisis. Certainly these tensions have remained through the present, though the movement as a whole has continued to hang together despite apparent contradictions. Just recently for instance, the dust-up between David Frum and the editors of First Things magazine is pretty typical for the type of intra-movement squabble that this book is concerned with.
The book quotes at length from conservative magazines and pamphlets as evidence for its arguments. It is very much an "intellectual history" that is concerned with animating ideas (I'd call it "constructivist" if I were still in grad school.) To be clear, Diamond herself is quite obviously on the opposite end of the political spectrum as the subjects of her book, though she is professional and academic in her treatment. I found her judgement to be sound throughout.
An all-around impressive book and one of the best I've read on the topic. I've read more than a few.
August 22, 2009
A classic study of the rise of dominionism and the threat it poses to our open and free society. The dominionists are simply mad and must be stopped at all costs.
August 21, 2022
Bleak. It’s looking bleak
September 30, 2011
The material here is a little too worrying to review the book in depth, but this book does point to currents on the right in America that have been under and alongside the Republican Party since Roosevelt and definitely since McCarthy. I appreciate the distinctions she draws about extremist policy mongering versus "extremist parties". The JBS held many unsavory views but most of its political work was pamphleteering and consciousness raising.
April 23, 2015
An in-depth and even-handed history of the development of rightwing politics in American history from the beginning of the 20th century. Diamond makes use of extensive primary documents to trace the interconnections of right wing political forces, and the place of the Christian Right within that movement.
August 10, 2008
very excellent history of the rightwing since 1945..
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews