The Radical Mind

“A bold and compelling reinterpretation of the rise of the New Right that places religion at the heart of the movement. Ebin demonstrates that figures like Paul Weyrich and Jerry Falwell were not revivalists of tradition but political and theological innovators whose ideas bound together conservative Catholics and Protestants into a coalition that transformed American politics.”—Gene Zubovich, author of Before the Religious Right: Liberal Protestants, Human Rights, and the Polarization of the United States

“This bold reframing of the New Christian Right draws on extensive and perceptive archival research to illustrate the ambitious goal at the heart of the movement: to transform American culture and with it, American politics. Chelsea Ebin centers Catholic activist Paul Weyrich in the development of strategies that brought conservative Protestants and Catholics together under an identity of victimhood. Ebin’s carefully constructed argument challenges the dominant framing of the New Christian Right as a ‘backlash’ to the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and demonstrates the revolutionary—and relevant—goal of cultural dominance at the heart of the movement.”—Seth Dowland, author of Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right

“The Radical Mind makes important contributions to the growing body of literature on the rise of the Christian Right in the twentieth century. Ebin interrogates the concept of ‘backlash’ as an explanatory framework for the rise of the religious right in the 1970s, demonstrating that the Christian Right’s framing of its movement as one defending ‘traditional’ culture from liberal assault was a constructed discourse that created new social and political realities as much as it preserved any imagined past. In telling this story, Ebin provides new insights into familiar figures and introduces previously understudied political actors—especially those pioneering the rise of the New Catholic Right and its coalition building with conservative Protestants—to help us better understand conservative American politics, then and now.”—Karen K. Seat, coeditor of A Marginal Majority: Women, Gender, and a Reimagining of Southern Baptists

“The Radical Mind takes us beyond conventional accounts of the Christian Right by showing how conservative Catholic and Protestant political entrepreneurs overcame longstanding antipathies to build both the intellectual and political foundations of the New Right in the 1970s. Deftly blending structural, institutional, and discursive analyses grounded in deep archival excavation, Chelsea Ebin has written one of the best accounts of the Christian Right to date.”—Joseph Lowndes, author of From the New Deal to the New Right: Race and the Southern Origins of Modern Conservatism

“Chelsea Ebin’s new book provides some new archival material that helps us rethink the relationship between the New Right and the New Christian Right. It is particularly useful in helping us to understand the relationship between Catholic and Protestant activists as the movement began to take shape, at a time when the conventional wisdom suggests more hostility than cooperation. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Christian Right or in American right-wing politics more generally.”—Clyde Wilcox, coauthor of Federalism: A Very Short Introduction