More on Militia Scares and Red Scares

Over at our HNN sister blog, Cliopatria, Chris Bray calls attention to what looks to be a fascinating new book (which I promptly added to my reading list) by Robert H. Churchill: To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant's Face: Libertarian Political Violence and the Origins of the Militia Movement. According to Bray,

Churchill writes that New Deal progressives, offended and frightened by vitriolic far-right opposition to the New Deal, launched"a systematic campaign of public condemnation and state repression." Private liberal organizations"initiated the collection of dossiers on leading figures of the Far Right," while the FDR administration and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI undertook an effort that led to the conviction of dozens of right-wing figures on sedition charges. (Hoover even maintained a" custodial detention index" of right-wing figures.)

Hat tip Jonathan Dresner.