American panic
Subtitle: a history of who scares us and why
By: Mark Stein
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 275
ISBN-13: 9781137279026
Subjects: Politics and government; Political culture; Social change; Social conditions; American National characteristics; Ethnic relations; Moral panics; HISTORY / United States / General; Fear; Panic; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / General; History
Description: "In American Panic, New York Times bestselling author Mark Stein traces the history and consequences of American political panics through the years. Virtually every American, on one level or another, falls victim to the hype, intensity, and propaganda that accompanies political panic, regardless of their own personal affiliations. By highlighting the similarities between American political panics from the Salem witch hunt to present-day vehemence over issues such as Latino immigration, gay marriage, and the construction of mosques, Stein closely examines just what it is that causes us as a nation to overreact in the face of widespread and potentially profound change. This book also devotes chapters to African Americans, Native Americans, Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Chinese and Japanese peoples, communists, capitalists, women, and a highly turbulent but largely forgotten panic over Freemasons. Striking similarities in these diverse episodes are revealed in primary documents Stein has unearthed, in which statements from the past could easily be mistaken for statements today. As these similarities come to light, Stein reveals why some people become panicked over particular issues when others do not"--
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction:; title: It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness (Chinese proverb) --; title: "Hyenas in human form : no good Indians except those that are dead" --; title: "There are plenty of people in this country of ours who would far rather see the entire white race here rotted by heroic injections into their veins of all the savagery and criminality in the Negro than have any number of the latter in any way inconvenienced" --; title: "[T]o prepare for the overthrow of the government, no measure could be more effectual than the toleration of the institution of freemasonry, which inculcates principles of arbitrary power and slavish obedience, the most abhorrent to freedom." -- -- "The; title: despots of Europe are attempting, by the spread of popery in this country to subvert its free institutions" -- -- "The; title: menace to the Western world lies in the millions of yellow men; there is a certain integrity, a sympathy and comradeship and warm human feel which is ours and which we cannot teach to the Oriental" --; title: "Wherever the Jew is allowed to establish himself, dishonesty takes the place of honesty; immorality, of virtue; disease, of health; sluttishness, of cleanliness; anarchy, of order; he is now carrying out his work of deterioration and destruction in the United States" -- -- "The; title: Communist Party, USA, works day and night, virtually invisible to the non-communist eye; for its objective, the ultimate seizure of power in America" --; title: "Corporations have been enthroned, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign, until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed" --; title: "Woman suffrage revolutionizes society, revolutionizes religion, revolutionizes the Constitution and the legitimate and proper sphere of woman" --; title: "Weak and effeminate Romans were powerless, [and] the great empire collapsed, never to rise again. Shall we permit ourselves to fall into this disgraceful degradation?" --; title: "America is under siege, facing a hostile invasion on its own soil; the invaders are illegal immigrants, their battleground is the U.S.-Mexico border, what's at stake is the money, security, and freedom of all Americans" --; title: "Some of the most influential Islamic spokesmen and leaders in the United States...envision not only a Muslim president, but that the United States Constitution be replaced or amended so as to comply in all particulars with Islamic Sharia law" ---- Conclusion: We have met the enemy, and he is us.