The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
by: Jeff Sharlet
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They are the Family—fundamentalism's avant-garde, waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the new chosen—congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.
The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."
Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"
Part history, part investigative journalism, The Family is a compelling account of how fundamentalism came to be interwoven with American power, a story that stretches from the religious revivals that have shaken this nation from its beginning to fundamentalism's new frontiers. No other book about the right has exposed the Family or revealed its far-reaching impact on democracy, and no future reckoning of American fundamentalism will be able to ignore it.
A journalist's penetrating look at the untold story of christian fundamentalism's most elite organization, a self-described invisible network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful
They are the Family—fundamentalism's avant-garde, waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the new chosen—congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.
The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."
Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"
Part history, part investigative journalism, The Family is a compelling account of how fundamentalism came to be interwoven with American power, a story that stretches from the religious revivals that have shaken this nation from its beginning to fundamentalism's new frontiers. No other book about the right has exposed the Family or revealed its far-reaching impact on democracy, and no future reckoning of American fundamentalism will be able to ignore it.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- If Christian Conservatives are really in control, then why....
If Christian Conservatives are really in control, then why are there so many attacks on Christians and the ommissions of Christianity from all areas of our culture. Things don't add up...I'm not questioning the main premise of the book, however...this dog don't seem to hunt...
Rating: 
- if the author could only step back from his own political beliefs
There are numerous instances where it sounds like the author isn't objecting to the unaccountable power of these fundamentalists as much as he objects to them favoring lower taxes vs. higher ones, and if the fundamentalists in question were Good Liberals using the same undemocratic (small 'd'), controlling, manipulative methods toward higher taxes and labor union power, he'd be OK with it.
Rating: 
- if you hate Christians
if youhate Christians, you'll love this book....me...i threw my copy in the garbage, which seemed appropriate to me.
Rating: - That nasty, nagging feeling...
... that something's lurking, just beyond your grasp, is there, alive and affecting your life in ways you could only in your darkest fears imagine.
This is theocracy, the true enemy of American democracy.This is not the Bible-thumping shennanigans of the mostly ignorant mass of true believers.This threat is more insidious and powerful and it just might bring this nation to ultimate ruin.
Read the book.Steel yourself.Do something to help stop it.
Yeah... ... Read More
Rating: 
- Some confusion
Mr. Sharlet deals with a good number of facts about a group which has influence in politics.That is good.But there is intertwined some failed terminology and off-topic material that I find disturbing.
Off-topic:Why deal at all with Campus Crusade ("Christian Embassy")?
Inconsistent terminology:Is this group really "fundamentalist" or even representative of fundamentalism?Two stories emerge -- they are and tehy are not.
Does he understand?:The statement that they are merely ... Read More
- If Christian Conservatives are really in control, then why....If Christian Conservatives are really in control, then why are there so many attacks on Christians and the ommissions of Christianity from all areas of our culture. Things don't add up...I'm not questioning the main premise of the book, however...this dog don't seem to hunt...
- if the author could only step back from his own political beliefsThere are numerous instances where it sounds like the author isn't objecting to the unaccountable power of these fundamentalists as much as he objects to them favoring lower taxes vs. higher ones, and if the fundamentalists in question were Good Liberals using the same undemocratic (small 'd'), controlling, manipulative methods toward higher taxes and labor union power, he'd be OK with it.
- if you hate Christiansif youhate Christians, you'll love this book....me...i threw my copy in the garbage, which seemed appropriate to me.
- That nasty, nagging feeling...... that something's lurking, just beyond your grasp, is there, alive and affecting your life in ways you could only in your darkest fears imagine.
This is theocracy, the true enemy of American democracy.This is not the Bible-thumping shennanigans of the mostly ignorant mass of true believers.This threat is more insidious and powerful and it just might bring this nation to ultimate ruin.
Read the book.Steel yourself.Do something to help stop it.
Yeah... ... Read More
- Some confusionMr. Sharlet deals with a good number of facts about a group which has influence in politics.That is good.But there is intertwined some failed terminology and off-topic material that I find disturbing.
Off-topic:Why deal at all with Campus Crusade ("Christian Embassy")?
Inconsistent terminology:Is this group really "fundamentalist" or even representative of fundamentalism?Two stories emerge -- they are and tehy are not.
Does he understand?:The statement that they are merely ... Read More
