Rifles and Rhetoric: Paramilitary Anti-Semitism in the New Deal Era

Abstract

The chaos of the Great Depression allowed for the rise of demagogues on both sides of the American political spectrum. On the fringes of the American right came William Dudley Pelley and Father Charles Coughlin, two rabid anti-Semites staunchly opposed to Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Using familiar rhetorical tropes, they marshaled their supporters and presented a violent resistance to the transformation of the American state. Railing against perceiving conspiracies involving Judaism, Communism, and international banking, these men set a precedent for extreme right-wing politics that resonated in their own time and still has consequences today.