Furious Minds
The Making of the MAGA New Right
Laura K. Field’s political science survey Furious Minds is about the intellectual underpinnings of authoritarianism in the US.
Describing in detail the different strains of elitist far-right politics that came together in the past decade, this is a meticulous, nuanced study of the patchwork of the US’s far right. Rather than focusing on the popular phenomenon of rank-and-file voters swayed toward MAGA authoritarianism or on the conspiracy theorists who built a cult of personality around Donald Trump, the book focuses on the academics, theorists, and other powerful figures whose far-right ideologies coincided with Trump’s rise, but whose names are not always tied to it. The John Birch Society, Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign, and the radicalization of conservative groups including the Claremont Institute and Hillsdale College are all considered.
Doing an able job of identifying “a highly networked movement with distinct clusters and modes of thinking,” the book delves into far-right realms, using speeches and writing from them to contrast what they claim to believe with what they present to their followers. It treats far-right ideas in good faith, pointing out places where their analyses might identify real problems and discussing schisms between intellectuals with consistent views and those who broke with their own orthodoxy to join the MAGA movement. It also explains the sources of these myriad groups’ ideas, from misinterpretations of Bronze Age history to the thoughts of Nazi lawyer Carl Schmitt, working through some of the logical fallacies upon which key right-wing intellectuals rely.
Less about any single election or political figure than it is about the web of institutions that built a parallel world with its own self-contained reality, Furious Minds is a thorough political science text about the myriad strands of thought driving the United States away from democracy and toward autocracy.
Reviewed by
Jeff Fleischer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
