Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade

by Donald T. Critchlow

Longtime activist, author, and antifeminist leader Phyllis Schlafly is for many the symbol of the conservative movement in America. In this provocative new book, historian Donald T. Critchlow sheds new light on Schlafly's life and on the unappreciated role her grassroots activism played in transforming America's political landscape.


Based on exclusive and unrestricted access to Schlafly's papers as well as sixty other archival collections, the book reveals for the first time the inside story of this Missouri-born mother of six who became one of the most controversial forces in modern political history. It takes us from Schlafly's political beginnings in the Republican Right after the World War II through her years as an anticommunist crusader to her more recent efforts to thwart same-sex marriage and stem the flow of illegal immigrants.


Schlafly's political career took off after her book A Choice Not an Echo helped secure Barry Goldwater's nomination. With sales of more than 3 million copies, the book established her as a national voice within the conservative movement. But it was Schlafly's bid to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment that gained her a grassroots following. Her anti-ERA crusade attracted hundreds of thousands of women into the conservative fold and earned her a name as feminism's most ardent opponent. In the 1970s, Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum, a Washington-based conservative policy organization that today claims a membership of 50,000 women.


Filled with fresh insights into these and other initiatives, Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism provides a telling profile of one of the most influential activists in recent history. Sure to invite spirited debate, it casts new light on a major shift in American politics, the emergence of the Republican Right.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Feminism, School

448 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2005

Reviews

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating study of 20thc grassroots political mobilizing and the rightward turn of the GOP through the controversial figure of Phyllis Schlafly. The fight over the ERA is at the center of this history but there is a lot more to this book on the broader history of US conservatism and political organizing. Love or hate PS, she is a good way to understand a lot of things about US political culture.

The book is well done as a piece of history writing, though it goes too easy on Schlafly. It is also 20 years old and shaped by its Bush era context (and Critchlow’s admiration)—I expect the writing of this history would be inflected somewhat differently in/after (?) the awfulness of the MAGA era, especially given her support for Trump in 2016…

[The American Conservative]

It is amazing that academic historians, long interested in studying the impact of women on modern American life, have ignored arguably the most important woman in present-day American politics, Phyllis Schlafly. Then again, maybe it isn’t so amazing, for Schlafly has fought valiantly over the course of a long career against feminism, and it is feminists who dominate academia and write women’s history.

Donald Critchlow, a political historian at Saint Louis University, has shattered the historical barrier, providing a well written, impressively researched, and sympathetic study of the importance of grassroots activism in the formation of modern American conservatism. Critchlow shows how Schlafly, a dedicated Republican activist, used her talent to mobilize grassroots conservatives, the majority of them women, and how, in conjunction with intellectuals and politicians, she helped move the GOP to the Right. Those looking for a traditional biography of Schlafly will not find it here. Critchlow’s book is mostly concerned with Schlafly’s activist career. And it is a fascinating tale.

http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know, I know, Phyllis gets a bad rap. And she married herself the kind of last name that Hollywood agents would change half a heartbeat. But I really admire the lady.

For those of you who are too young to remember rotary dial phones, Phyllis was a housewife from the St. Louis area who led the fight against the Equal Rights Amendment. Actually, calling her "just a housewife" doesn't paint an accurate picture of the woman. Spurred by a Catholic sense of duty, she worked in Washington when she was a young single woman, which is where she learned the art of political organizing. After marriage and a first child, friends approached her husband Fred and asked him to run for Congress. He wasn't interested. "Then how about Phyllis?" they asked.

She didn't win the race, but she brought her considerable skills to bear on cause after cause. She fought against communism, for national defense, for Goldwater and Reagan. Not long before the ERA fight, she sat down to dinner with her husband and six children and announced that she'd decided to go to law school.

This is a woman who subscribed to 100 magazines and newspapers, who seldom got caught spewing mistaken facts. Her energy seemed endless, although she surely must have had household help. I just don't think she could have made all those phone calls, published all those newsletters, or run around Illinois making all those speeches without somebody back home to make dinner and clean the bathrooms. (I don't think money was a problem. Fred was a lawyer.) And when Phyllis' name became nationally known, she would hire a ballroom and throw a reception for her supporters.

Phyllis' enemies saw her as "doctrinaire, intolerant and self-righteous." Her supporters found her "logical, morally passionate [who] spoke on behalf of the average American." In later years, a very seasoned Phyllis had refined the art of maintaining her cool in a debate. When Betty Friedan said she would like to burn Phyllis at the stake, Schlafly calmly replied, "I'm glad you said that because it just shows the intemperate nature of proponents of ERA."

The book can be heavy wading. I endured the parts about nuclear stuff, but ate up everything on the ERA fight. If the political stuff doesn't appeal to you but you'd like to read about the woman, I suggest Sweetheart of Silent Majority by Carol Felsenthal. I think I read that one decades ago and enjoyed it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I can't say the book was poorly written, and I can't honestly say that I wanted to put this down. I tore through this book, but not entirely in a positive way. Critchlow is writing of the rise of the New Right and grassroots conservatism as if the story can be told through the life of Phyllis Schlafly, and I just don't buy it at all. By spending so much time on Schlafly's story BEFORE the anti-ERA fight in the 70s, Critchlow just reminded me over and over about what a fringe character Schlafly was originally. She and her husband were just a couple of anti-Communist, John Birchy kooks. She didn't do a very good job drumming up grassroots conservatism when she was running for Congress in the 50s and losing. She wrote a nice book for Barry Goldwater, who got CRUSHED in the general election. Then she ran for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women. Lost. Then she ran for US Congress again. Lost! I'm not even convinced that she even cared all that much about the anti-ERA fight, she kept writing her nutty anti-Commie pro-nuke books all through the 70s. I think she recognized that by harping on this idea that the ERA could force women to be drafted into the army, and by making people think the government was going to steal their children and force them into government run day care centers, she could help mobilize way more women then she ever had managed to mobilize with the paranoid militant conservatism she really believed in.
Plus, Critchlow wants to write this book as if Reagan's election in 1980 was this triumph of Schlafly, and it sounds like Reagan basically marginalized her just the same as every other Republican who ever won a major election.
Also, important to take this one with a grain of salt, as Critchlow admits from the start that Schlafly was very welcoming to him at her company, Eagle Forum, and any time he had a question he could just go and ask her. Not going to make him LESS sympathetic, that's for sure. He talks about having a question, and zipping down the hall to ask Phyllis..."Why no, Donald, I wouldn't say I HATED Franklin Roosevelt, maybe I just didn't like him all that much." "Great, thanks Mrs. Schlafly, I'll go put it in my book!"

[Mike Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sacred Heart girl! You know her as crazy lady who was against the ERA. But she was actually the godmother of the new right. She cut her teeth on the 1964 Barry Goldwater nomination and was a super anti-communist. The whole ERA thing was just a small part of her life. But the fact that she pretty much is responsible for derailing it is pretty impressive (even if you see her in a Darth Vader sort of way). I had to go look her up, and she is still hammering away (saying that Donald Trump and Ben Carson are the only Republicans with guts!). She may be far out there, but still an interesting story.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's well written and researched, but man, did it get boring after awhile.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A smarter version of Sarah Palin. I should probably give this two stars because Critchlow is not hard on her, and for the most part gives her a pass on civil rights. Easy read, and is interesting to note that Schlafly probably focused an equal amount of her energy on hawkish cold war issues as fighting the Equal Rights Amendment.

[Barron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wouldn't you know it--a book with a giant Anti-ERA sticker on the front is actually about arms control.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book. Always good to know about the opposition.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does a good job placing Schlafly, best known for her aggressive opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, in the context of 1960s grassroots conservatism. Might have given it four stars, but like many writers on conservatism, Critchlow downplays the importance of race, and white supremacy, in the movement.

[Izy Lusk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lowkey sucked. It barely talked about Phyllis Schlafly and it kind of seemed like Critchlow was just in love with her. She was a side character in every aspect of this book, and that is so evident. Talks more about the policies and men around her than it does say anything about her.

[AJ Conroy]

Well researched, balanced

[Gilles Tellier · Rating 1 out of 5]

A tiring, hacky attempt to whitewash a truly despicable person. I would call it soul sucking, if the intended audience had souls to begin with.