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An elderly Robert Welch sitting at a desk in a wood-paneled office.

We All Live in the John Birch Society’s World Now

In his lifetime, Robert Welch toiled in the mocked and marginal fringe. Today his ideas are the mainstream of the American right.
by Chris Lehmann via The New Republic on November 23, 2021
Angela Davis speaking at the Birmingham Committee for Truth and Reconciliation event at the Boutwell Auditorium on Feb. 16, 2019 in Birmingham, Ala. (Andi(cq)Rice/The Washington Post)
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Thanks to Conservative Politicans and the Media, the Education Wars Echo the 1960s

The debate once again centers on — and stokes — White parents’ anxieties.
by Kate L. Flach via Made By History on November 19, 2021
Volunteer putting out political signs for the Virginia governor's race.
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Virginia’s Governor’s Race May Hinge on Debates About Public Schools

Channeling conservative, white anger about public schools is a long-running political strategy.
by Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, Lisa Levenstein via Made By History on November 2, 2021
The 1906 Atlanta massacre, as depicted on the front page of the newspaper Le Petit Journal in 1906.

The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre: How Fearmongering Led to Violence

As African Americans achieved economic success in Atlanta in the early 1900s, the city simmered with racial strife that was further spread by yellow journalism.
by Nadra Kareem Little via HISTORY on September 14, 2021
Exhibit

Fear Itself

We're not generally at our best when frightened. It's no surprise, then, that some of the ugliest episodes in American history (but also, some pretty great films) have been driven by fear.
Donald Trump and Greg Abbott on a stage.
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The GOP is Reviving the Old History of Blaming Outsiders for Disease

But the evidence never backed it up before, and it doesn’t support such claims today either.
by Jonathan Zimmerman via Made By History on August 15, 2021
Digital illustration of a wagon filled with newspapers.

Fear in the Heartland

How the case of the kidnapped paperboys accelerated the “stranger danger” panic of the 1980s.
by Paul M. Renfro via Slate on August 9, 2021
Chinese miners in California

The Anti-Asian Roots of Today’s Anti-Immigrant Politics

Long before Trump, politicians on the country’s West Coast mobilized a white working-class base through violent hate of Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
by Mari Uyehara via The Nation on August 9, 2021
Image interference of Tucker Carlson on Fox News.

3 Tropes of White Victimhood

Leading conservative pundits today are pounding themes that were popular among opponents of Reconstruction.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via The Atlantic on July 20, 2021
Man holding poster at U.S. Capitol Riot

The Paranoid Style: Rereading Richard Hofstadter in the Aftermath of January 6

How a book of essays from 1964 explains what happened at the Capitol.
by Bennett Parten via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 13, 2021
German American Bund members
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The Long History of American Nazism — And Why We Can’t Forget it Today

Even as the United States mobilized to defeat Nazi Germany, anti-democratic forces simmered at home.
by Ronald J. Granieri, Susan Elia MacNeal via Made By History on July 13, 2021
Graphic of Earth surrounded by red and white squiggles

What Is the Most Damaging Conspiracy Theory in History?

"What makes this conspiracy theory so damaging is its adaptability."
by Christine Caldwell Ames, David G. Robertson, Daniel Kolitz, Jennifer Rice, Joseph Parent, Sara Lipton, Peter Knight via Gizmodo on July 12, 2021
George W. Bush speaking to marines

Why Did We Invade Iraq?

The most complete account we are likely to get of the deceptions and duplicities that led to war leaves some crucial mysteries unsolved.
by Fred Kaplan via New York Review of Books on July 6, 2021
An anti-critical race theory rally

To Understand the History Wars, Follow the Paper Trail

The history of racism, slavery and its impacts on American society is essential and appropriate for school history classes.
by James Grossman, Jeremy C. Young via The Hill on July 5, 2021
Woman with sign protesting textbooks

This Critical Race Theory Panic Is a Chip Off the Old Block

How 20th-century curriculum controversies foreshadowed this summer’s wave of legislation.
by Adam Laats, Gillian Frank via Slate on June 18, 2021
Protest for trans rights
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The New Wave of Anti-Trans Legislation is Based on Very Old Arguments and Ideas

Trans Americans have taken to the courts for decades to fight against the notion that they are a threat.
by Shay Ryan Olmstead via Made By History on June 14, 2021
"Neighborhood of Fear" book cover

Abolishing the Suburbs

On Kyle Riismandel’s “Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975–2001.”
by David Helps via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 13, 2021
Joseph McCarthy appearing on CBS television
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The Cold War on TV: Joseph McCarthy vs. Edward R. Murrow

In the heat of the Cold War, Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade became a media sensation.
via Retro Report on April 12, 2021
An illustration featuring Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The John Birch Society Never Left

Why it’s foolish to think the modern GOP will ever break with its lunatic fringe.
by Rick Perlstein, Edward H. Miller via The New Republic on March 8, 2021

QAnon and the Satanic Panics of Yesteryear

What they can teach us about what to expect.
by Daniel N. Gullotta via The Bulwark on February 25, 2021
Rush Limbaugh at a Trump rally

From Limbaugh to Trump: A Historian of the Right Wing Explains Rush’s Real Legacy

In so many ways, Limbaugh helped sow the seeds of the pathologies we're now living through.
by Rick Perlstein, Greg Sargent via Washington Post on February 17, 2021
Marjorie Taylor Greene
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Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Just the Latest Radical White Woman Poisoning Politics

Such women have long pushed American politics to the right, and their ideas have become mainstream.
by Elizabeth Gillespie McRae via Made By History on February 6, 2021
Herbert Hoover in January 1933

Herbert Hoover Did Something Donald Trump is Unwilling to Do

While Herbert Hoover was deeply critical of his successor, he put aside his differences to ensure the peaceful and democratic transition of power.
by Meg Jacobs via CNN on January 20, 2021

A TV Documentary Shows the Deep Roots of Right-Wing Conspiracy

In 1964, the John Birch Society was the most active far-right group in the United States—unless you count the Republican Party.
by Richard Brody via The New Yorker on January 14, 2021
Rudy Giuliani and a graphic that says "multiple pathways to victory."

Disenfranchisement: An American Tradition

Invoking the specter of voter fraud to undermine democratic participation is a tactic as old as the United States itself.
by Julilly Kohler-Hausmann via Dissent on January 10, 2021
Political cartoon depicting the menace of monopolies and trusts (1899)

Degeneration Nation

How a Gilded Age best seller shaped American race discourse.
by Adam Morris via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 14, 2020

Republicans Rediscover the Dangers of Selling Bunk to Their Constituents

Cynical public speech aimed at winning political power has consequences.
by Rachel Shelden via The Atlantic on November 25, 2020
A television news reporter in a segment from the 1990s on juvenile crime

Superpredator

The media myth that demonized a generation of Black youth.
by Carroll Bogert, Lynnell Hancock via The Marshall Project on November 20, 2020
Donald Trump at a rally
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Trump’s Rhetoric About the Election Channels a Dark Episode From Our Past

The only coup in American history came after scare-mongering that wouldn't sound out of place in 2020.
by David Gessner via Made By History on October 22, 2020
A forest scene featuring people hiding behind logs.

The Jamaican Slave Insurgency That Transformed the World

From Vincent Brown's Cundill Prize-nominated "Tacky’s Revolt."
by Vincent Brown via Literary Hub on October 14, 2020
Joseph McCarthy presenting a map.

The Real Legacy of a Demagogue

A new biography of Joseph McCarthy does not reckon with the devastating effects of anti-communism.
by Dan Kaufman via The New Republic on October 2, 2020
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