Review by Choice Review
Hawley (Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa) surveys various groups and individuals on the margins of the American Right. This wide-ranging volume includes chapters on southern agrarians and other communitarian localists, libertarians, paleoconservatives, and white nationalists. Some chapters are more successful than others. For example, Hawley's treatment of the writings of secular conservatives indicates a smattering of individual voices more than a coherent group, and his inclusion of the New European Right is mostly speculative in terms of influence on American conservatives. He adds a brief history of the movement that should be familiar to readers of other books on conservatism, but a novel history of "purges"--moments when movement conservatives worked with liberal allies to exclude voices deemed too irresponsible, ranging from the John Birch Society to David Duke--is welcome. Overall, most of the subjects in this book are reviewed too briefly to provide much depth, as the author himself admits; but their juxtaposition tells an important story about how the conservative movement has been shaped over its history. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Richard J. Meagher, Randolph-Macon College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
