{"product_id":"9780815608196","title":"William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult","description":"\u003cp\u003eWilliam Dudley Pelley was one of the most important figures of the anti-Semitic radical right in the twentieth century. Best remembered as the leader of the paramilitary \"Silver Shirts,\" Pelley was also an award-winning short story writer, Hollywood screenwriter, and religious leader. During the Depression Pelley was a notorious presence in American politics; he ran for president on a platform calling for the ghettoization of American Jews and was a defendant in a headlinegrabbing sedition trial thanks to his unwavering support for Nazi Germany.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eScott Beekman offers not only a political but also an intellectual and literary biography of Pelley, greatly advancing our understanding of a figure often dismissed as a madman or charlatan. His belief system, composed of anti-Semitism, economic nostrums, racialism, neo-Theosophical channeling, and millenarian Christianity, anticipates the eclecticism of later cult personalities such as Shoko Asahara, leader of Aum Shinrikyo, and the British conspiracy theorist David Icke.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy charting the course of Pelley's career, Beekman does an admirable job of placing Pelley within the history of both the anti-Semitic right and American occult movements. This exhaustively researched book is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on American extremism and esoteric religions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Syracuse University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46229713584369,"sku":"9780815608196","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/5433\/7265\/files\/9780815608196_p0.jpg?v=1765311576","url":"https:\/\/shop.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780815608196","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble","version":"1.0","type":"link"}