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Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy
by Katherine Stewart
The acclaimed author of The Power Worshippers exposes the inner workings of the "engine of unreason" roiling American culture and politics.
Why have so many Americans turned against democracy? In this deeply reported book, Katherine Stewart takes us to conferences of conspiracy-mongers, backroom strategy gatherings, and services at extremist churches, and profiles the people who want to tear it all down. She introduces us to reactionary Catholic activists, atheist billionaires, pseudo-Platonist intellectuals, self-appointed apostles of Jesus, disciples of Ayn Rand, women-hating opponents of "the gynocracy," pronatalists preoccupied with the dearth of white babies, Covid truthers, militia members masquerading as "concerned moms" and battalions of spirit warriors who appear to be inventing a new style of religion even as they set about attacking democracy at its foundations.
Along the way, she provides a compelling analysis of the authoritarian reaction in the United States. She demonstrates that the movement relies on several distinct constituencies, with very different and often conflicting agendas. Stewart's reporting and comprehensive political analysis help reframe the conversation about the moral collapse of conservatism in America and point the way forward toward a democratic future.
"Drawing on 15 years of reporting … Stewart's fine-grained and eye-opening investigation meticulously outlines the loose organizational structure that keeps these strange bedfellows banded together-with a focus on the lines of connections between the movement's funders, intellectuals, and foot-soldiers. This offers urgently needed background on the 2024 election results." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Organized, clear, and compelling … journalism of the highest order … This is an important book and it couldn't appear at a more opportune time." ―California Review of Books
"Here is the life-and-death story most news outlets have missed. Under the evermore intense pressure of multi-billionaire donors determined to shackle democracy and entrepreneurial Christian nationalist leaders eager to take away our freedoms, the Right has radicalized since 2020 into outright fascism, full of menace and exhortations to violence against a majority they have worked diligently to dehumanize. Katherine Stewart provides a bracing must-read story of how the varied streams have merged into a mighty river moving toward massive destruction-and explains to readers how together we can divert it." ―Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy In Chains
"A stunning, sweeping account of the coordinated movement to destroy the American experiment through dark money, political organizing, ideological distortion, thuggery, and authoritarianism, Money, Lies, and God is required reading for every person who wields a vote. Not since Dorothy Thompson has a writer documented fascist organizing so persuasively and cogently; this book places Katherine Stewart among the most significant journalists of her generation." ―Kathleen Belew, author of Bring The War Home
This information about Money, Lies, and God was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Katherine Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, the award-winning book upon which the documentary feature, God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner, is based. She has covered the intersection of faith and politics for over 15 years; her work appears in the New York Times, the New Republic and others. Her 2012 book, The Good News Club, covered the religious right's effort to infiltrate and undermine public education.
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