Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers

by Jean Hardisty, Wilma Mankiller (Foreword by)

Overview

"Mobilizing Resentment provides a wealth of information for anyone interested in how to refocus the energy and idealism of the progressive movement on the building of institutions that are relevant to the lives of most Americans.' —Wilma Mankiller, from the Foreword

Jean Hardisty, draws a map of the political battles now being fought in America and offers lessons for progressives confronting, combating and constructively engaging the Right in more productive ways.

In this provocative book, Jean Hardisty details the formation of right-wing movements in opposition to the struggle for expansion of rights for women, people of color, and lesbians and gays. Her own experiences spanning three decades as both an activist and observer undergird her analysis in riveting ways. We see her in a stadium filled with Promise Keepers, watching thousands of men pledge in unison to take control of their families, with a mixture of awe, fear, and a lucid understanding of what draws people to such charismatic events.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807043172
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	09/28/2000
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.39(w) x 8.01(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Jean Hardisty is founder and executive director of Political Research Associates. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

What People are Saying About This

Gloria Steinem

If you have time for only one book about the ultra-conservative resurgence, this is it.

Howard Zinn

A thoughtful and provocative look at the right wing in the United States...It raises the troubling question: what can we learn from the people we fear?

Editorial Reviews

A personal, historical, and well-researched tour through the parallel universe of right-wing America. If you have time for only one book about the ultra-conservative resurgence, this is it." —Gloria Steinem

"A thoughtful and provocative look at the right wing in the United States, replacing simple condemnation with sober analysis. It raises the troubling question: what can we learn from people we fear." —Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States"

From the Publisher

In this surprisingly uninformative study of right-wing politics, Hardisty attempts to explain the ascendance of what she calls the New Right, that awkward marriage of libertarianism with social conservatism exemplified by the cooperation between Newt Gingrich and the Christian Coalition. She traces the seeds of the New Right's success back to the early 1970s, when strategists such as Jerry Falwell began to politicize conservative white Christians. Her theoretical discussions are strong, especially when she dissects the various flavors of libertarianism, but she fails to link those ideological concerns meaningfully to real-world politics. The founder and executive director of Political Research Associates, an organization that monitors right-wing politics, Hardisty makes no bones about her own political opinions, which reside far to the left of the spectrum. In the end, she is less concerned with understanding political conservatism than with exhorting progressives to strengthen their arguments in order to win the allegiance of those now being courted and won over by the right. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, and progressive activists will find some of her advice well worth heeding. But readers looking for an authoritative analysis of American political conservatism won't find it here. Worse, though Hardisty tries to see the "human" element of conservative social and political movements, she still exhibits a classic form of liberal contempt. It's one thing to disagree passionately with conservatism, quite another to view the New Right as something intrinsically undemocratic rather than as a wholly legitimate part of democracy's clamorous existence. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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