The University of North Carolina Press

Religious Studies

Religion and Extremism


Hoods and Shirts
The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania, 1925-1950
by Philip Jenkins

"Moving beyond the usual fascination with charismatic leaders, Jenkins focuses on the participants in right-wing extremist movements and the communities in which they lived. This welcome study of the social foundations of fascist, ethnic, nationalist, and similar groups demonstrates, among other things, how some immigrants looked to racism, anti-Semitism, and anticommunism as conduits into the mainstream of American society during the Great Depression."Leonard Moore, author of Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928

358 pp., 2316-3 $29.95 cl

Outside Agitator
Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama
by Charles W. Eagles

Lillian Smith Award, Southern Regional Council

Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America

A white Episcopal seminary student from New Hampshire, Jon Daniels helped organize blacks in Selma and was killed by a steadfast segregationist, who was later acquitted by an all-white jury.

"Provides students a gripping introduction to the complexities of the civil rights movement and exerts a significant improvement upon the existing literature." Journal of American History

352 pp., 2091-1 $49.95 cl
4420-9 $18.95 pa

Religion and the Racist Right
The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement
by Michael Barkun

revised edition

Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America

This revised edition extends Barkun's compelling study of white supremacist orthodoxy to include the dramatic developments of the mid-1990s the Oklahoma bombing, militias, and the New-World-Order conspiracy as mainstream political rhetoric.

"A superb model . . . on a subject loaded with polemics and misunderstanding."Church History

"A splendid and important book. . . . Barkun unravels the theological and ideological sources of the racist, anti-Semitic, and incipiently violent extremist groups that hover on the far outer fringes of American society."Paul Boyer, Institute for Research in the Humanities

346 pp., 2328-7 $39.95 cl
4638-4 $15.95 pa

Redeeming America
Piety and Politics in the New Christian Right
by Michael Lienesch

"A sensitive yet critical analysis of the ideology of the New Christian Right."Choice

"This book objectively probes the philosophic underpinnings of the Christian Right, expounding its worldview while also unmasking its inconsistencies and outlandish claims. . . . An interesting and important book."American Political Science Review

344 pp., 4428-4 $18.95 pa