Beyond liberal and conservative Book

This is a very thorough look at the prevailing hate groups and far right conspiracy theories up to the late 1980s (when the book was published). While the author's brief speculation about the coming millenium is grimly funny in hindsight, the book's "dated" nature has surprisingly little bearing on its readability. I was fascinated by the technology these groups utilized for recruitment and dissemination of information in a-- well, not technically a "pre-internet age" but certainly before what anyone now thinks of when one refers to the internet. The phone+answering machine hotlines, the subscription newsletters, the early text-only webpages that had to be progressed through one paragraph at a time. The author could never have been expected to guess how much more straightforward things would become for extremists looking for new recruits. I feel like this book exposes a history that, at least to children of the 90s, has largely faded from memory despite its incredible relevance to modern day movements.

Side note: the more childish part of me does want to mention that much unintentional levity was had due to the fact that the author refers to these extremists as "haters" (as in, literal members of hate groups). This results in sentences like "nowhere was more welcoming to the haters than the Ozarks."