Policing the Containment Order
The FBI and the Cold War Christian Right
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3358055 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Markku Ruotsila (University of Helsinki, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 819-840 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Church History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-6407 • E-ISSN: 1755-2613 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0009640725101868 |
| OpenAlex | W4412159273 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
According to an influential narrative, the Cold War era Federal Bureau of Investigation led in the construction of a countersubversive machinery that was designed to punish progressive dissent and to uphold a conservative Christian capitalist public order. This narrative has been constructed with very little research done into the FBI's actual views of and relations with the Cold War era political and religious Right, the ideology of which it was supposedly enforcing. Recent availability of FBI files makes such a study now possible - and yields results that destabilize the long-dominant narrative. These files show that the Bureau was in fact just as engaged in surveilling and repressing right-of-center organizations, and those of that era's Christian Right in particular. Materials in the files suggests that far from being an empowering agent for the emerging Christian Right, the Cold War era FBI was in fact policing and enforcing a notably liberal containment consensus and that its views on "genuinely" American religiosity were very far from being far-right
Business · Cold war · Containment (computer programming) · Criminology · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Political and Social Dynamics · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Computer Science · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |