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Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. By MICHAEL BARKUN. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1994. viii + 290 pp. $39.95.
This is a solidly researched, carefully nuanced, and consistently clear history and analysis of the Christian Identity phenomenon. Professor Barkun locates it with the many separate, often lawless anti-Jewish and anti-African-American communities who claim Christian foundations. The author shows the movement to be one that embraces both ideological commitment and political activism. Barkun's tone for a subject with so much hatred and violence is one of calm, step-by-step analysis. His research uncovered many heretofore obscure documents and...