ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book originally serves as introduction to a repository of material now housed in the Eli Oboler Library on the Idaho State University campus in Pocatello. It provides the readers with some background into the succession of right-wing insurgencies that have plagued America since the time of its founding. The book begins by surveying the roots of the CD movement in the ferment that began building within the fundamentalist Christian community in the early years of the 20th century. It deals with one of the enduring paradoxes of politics, namely, that all sides to a violent dispute will demonize their opponents by deploying variations of Big Lies. The book takes the opportunity to re-examine one of the key assumptions that informs approach to the American far-right.
