THE PARTY OF FEAR: FROM NATIVIST MOVEMENTS TO THE NEW RIGHT IN AMERICAN HISTORY

David Bennett presents a ground-breaking historical analysis of the forces shaping nativist and counter-subversive activity in America from colonial times to the present. He demonstrates that in this nation of immigrants the American Right did not emerge form postfeudal parties of privilege or from the social chaos that bred a Hitler of Mussolini in Europe.

In this most comprehensive of works covering right-wing movements in the United States since colonial times, Bennett (history, Syracuse) argues that members earnestly sought to defend the country from alien peoples and ideas viewed as a threat to the cherished American way of life. Bennett demonstrates that the perceived danger shifted after the 1919 Bolshevik revolution and the U.S. immigration restrictions in the 1920s from a fear of aliens themselves to fear of such alien ideologies as communism. Although this work is scholarly, illustrations would have enhanced it. Still, it is highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Steven D. Zink, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno
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