ABSTRACT
The aim of this book is to name and characterize a countersubversive tradition at the center of American politics. Although some of the chapters were originally written to stand on their own and others were conceived with the larger project in mind, all examine moments or strands in the history of political demonology. These terms, countersubversive tradition and political demonology, are not in common discourse. I use them to call attention to the creation of monsters as a continuing feature of American politics by the inflation, stigmatization, and dehumanization of political foes. These monsters – the Indian cannibal, the black rapist, the papal whore of Babylon, the monster-hydra United States Bank, the demon rum, the bomb-throwing anarchist, the many-tentacled Communist conspiracy, the agents of international terrorism – are familiar figures in the dream-life that so often dominates American politics. What do they signify?
