God’s Angry Men has Arrived!

Today I received hard copies of my book God’s Angry Men: The Political Legacy of the John Birch Society. This has been a project that has been my “child” for many years. It stems from my dissertation on the JBS, where I initially wrote about the wealthy men who were behind the Society, and the political movement they wanted to create to elect a far-right, pro-free enterprise, conservative Messiah. Using fear, conspiracy theories, culture war issues, and religion, the JBS and its wealthy backers were able to mobilize a portion of Christian conservatives to nominate Barry Goldwater. While the JBS were never taken seriously, even in scholarship, they did go below the radar after 1964, but their leadership/backers did not. This book follows the wealthy individuals that took lessons from the JBS, to establish the Moral Majority, The Council on National Policy, and The Heritage Foundation. While we dismissed the JBS, the leaders of these new political movements based on the same tactics the JBS used, led us to the moment were Project 2025 is leading the Trump Administration and his base.