Blood in the Face

The evolution of the political culture that has nurtured the racist right is presented chronologically in a discussion of the origins of the myth of the international Jewish conspiracy. It traces the history of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups such as Aryan Nations and the Nazi Skinheads and profiles the leaders of such groups, including Gerald L.K. Smith, William Dudley Pelley, Gerald B. Winrod, Robert DePugh, Willis Carto, George Lincoln Rockwell, Robert Miles, Richard Butler, and Larry Humphreys. This book presents the ideology of the racist right primarily through the statements, publications, and creeds of its adherents. The book notes that the media, which has focused only on the violent or sensational aspects of racist white revolutionary politics, has failed to report the substance of a surprisingly enduring and resourceful movement. The book concludes that recent history reveals an organized and, at times, violent and new far-right movement that has become impossible to ignore. Chapter bibliographic notes and a subject index.

Village Voice correspondent Ridgeway ( Powering Civilization ) traces the evolution of the "racialist right" in American politics up to George Bush's bid for the presidency, which, the author asserts, had the issue of race at its very foundation. With startling detail, this volume sets forth the violent histories of such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1866 by six former Confederate soldiers; the John Birch Society, an anti-civil rights group masquerading as an anti-Communist force; and the Posse Comitatus, whose members gather in posses to "protect" the white race from the scourge of Jews, blacks and other minorities. Examining their influence on the political climate of the U.S., Ridgeway profiles such leaders as David Dukes, the former head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana who ran for the Senate in 1990. Readers may feel overwhelmed by the amount of information this fascinating book imparts, and less than smooth transitions give the work a scattered feeling. As a result, Ridgeway's conclusions--including the obvious one that with the Cold War over, race will increasingly define "the social contours of society"--are more general than incisive. Illustrated.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.