Roads to Dominion: Rightwing Movements and Political Power in the United States.

• Author: Berlet, Chip

by Sara Diamond Guilford Press. 445 pages. $19.95.

by Michael Novick

It is difficult to imagine two books about the U.S. political right further apart in style and focus--yet so close in capturing the essential issues and ideas.

In Roads to Dominion: Rightwing Movements and Political Power in the United States, author Sara Diamond is the favorite teacher, furiously scribbling at the blackboard while an auditorium of students sits mesmerized by the detailed descriptions of various political players. The focus is broad, the style is academic.

In White Lies, White Power: The Fight Against White Supremacy and Reactionary Violence, author Michael Novick is the popular soap-box orator, boldly gesticulating on the street corner while a boisterous crowd gets energized by the detailed condemnations of various villains. The focus is narrow, the style is polemic.

Novick's use of the term "white supremacy" reflects the broader definition--not just race--hate groups, but the entire superstructure of oppression erected during European colonialism to justify domination of so-called inferior peoples who were identified and made the 'other" by assigning the idea of race to skin color.

Novick helped found People Against Racist Terror, a California-based activist group that publishes Turning the Tide, the journal he edits. White Lies, White Power began as a series of essays in the journal, leading to some confusing gaps in coverage and an unremitting tone, suitable for short articles but which I found tiring in book length.

Sometimes, such as when Novick discusses the relationship between the state and the paramilitary right, he seems to oversimplify; other times his analysis is complex and nuanced. But there isn't a chapter that doesn't ask tough questions. This isn't light reading, but it's must reading, especially for white activists seeking to go beyond guilt to effective anti-racist action.

As Novick writes, the book "puts forward the hope that together, we can overcome the problems that face us. It is an invitation and a challenge to people, not simply to take a stand or choose a side, but to help change the balance between the forces of repression and those of liberation."

Diamond's goal is to remake the basic definition of the political right: to be rightwing means to support the state in its capacity as enforcer of order and to oppose the state as distributor of wealth and power downward and more equitably in society."

Diamond divides the right into...