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Book Reviews 137 Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II. By Glen Jeansonne. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996; pp. xi + 264. $29.95 cloth; $16.95 paper. Mention Father Coughlin's name, and many will know or remember the isolationist priest who, with his dynamic and compelling voice, could convince his radio listeners of just about anything—even that Hitler's anti-Semitism was some kind of defense against Jew-Communism. Mention Gerald L. K. Smith, and many will recognize him as no less oratorically gifted and outrageous as Coughlin in that era. Indeed, mention the "America First Committee," and people still will recall their divisive activities. But mention such names as Elizabeth Dilling and Catherine Curtis, or organizations like "We the Mothers Mobilize for America," and fewer people wül know who they are. Fewer will know of their extremist isolationist positions in the 1930s and 1940s, of their rabid anti-Semitism, or of the consequences of their determined efforts to get their hate-filled rhetoric heard and accepted nationally. True, they were relatively inconsequential when contrasted to Coughlin, Smith, or "America First." Yet their strength—particularly in combination with their more prominent contemporaries—amplified the bigoted right-wing voice in America. And that right wing would help make it especially difficult for a president, concerned with a unified and supportive public opinion, to proceed "expeditiously" with any initiatives vis-à -vis the Axis powers (2). Only Pearl Harbor would alter the increasingly forceful course of the political right. Thus, Glen Jeansonne's volume, Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II, is an important contribution to the historical record and a must read for researchers interested in rhetoric's influence on public affairs. Additionally, this work should be of unique interest to students of women's studies. Were these respective women and their mothers' organizations feminists, motivated by emerging feminist precepts? Where are they situated in the march of women's history? The author does not shy away from dealing with these questions, and in so doing he enhances the value of his scholarship. Jeansonne bases his argument in the scrupulous examination of primary and secondary resources. Since "only Elizabeth Dilling and Catherine Curtis left papers," he notes at the outset, his chief sources are "investigative reports compiled by the federal government and organizations such as the American Jewish Committee." These and all other court transcripts and archival supports were authenticated and corroborated with cross-references (xiii). Women of the Far Right is well written and cleverly organized—even as the author notes that the "paucity of information" at times not only dictated the substantive nature of chapters, but their arrangement. For while an introductory chap- 138 Rhetoric & Public Affairs ter offers context—and concluding sections summarize, analyze, and evaluate—the ten chapters that make up the heart of this book are, in fact, ten individual narratives . Each narrative/chapter focuses on leading women, the development of the various and varied mothers' groups, and pivotal events in the life of the movement. Collectively, the narratives underscore the extent of the mothers' activities from coast to coast, intimate the intricacy of the movement's historical and rhetorical evolution, and underline mothers' ties to the larger network of fascist extremists. In chapter one, Jeansonne delineates a 1920s-1930s America increasingly insecure over political, economic, and social turbulence. One effect of the turmoil was a growing number of women—predominantly "white, middle-class" and "Christian" (2)—who believed that hearth and home were under attack. So they looked for a villain. Elizabeth Dilling, we learn in the first extended narrative, emerged as an ardent and articulate advocate in the quest to locate and define an appropriate scapegoat. An early movement leader and an exceptionally powerful speaker, Dilling identified for her audiences the villain who put the larger culture at risk: "Jew-Communists. Jew-Communists everywhere!" In time, one leading "magazine in Germany [described] her as the 'female fuhrer' of the United States" (22). Jeansonne proceeds to detail the linkage between the mothers' movement and "Fifth Columnists" like Coughlin and Smith (chapter three). Mothers, on the right's reasoning, had the right and...

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