E-Books →A Conspiratorial Life Robert Welch, the John Birch Society, and the Revolution of American Conservatism

Though you may not know his name, Robert Welch (1899-1985)-founder of the John Birch Society-is easily one of the most significant architects of our current political moment. InA Conspiratorial Life, the first full-scale biography of Welch, Edward H. Miller delves deep into the life of an overlooked figure whose ideas nevertheless reshaped the American right.
A child prodigy who entered college at age 12, Welch became an unlikely candy magnate, founding the company that created Sugar Daddies, Junior Mints, and other famed confections. In 1958, he funneled his wealth into establishing the organization that would define his legacy and change the face of American politics: the John Birch Society. Though the group's paranoiac right-wing nativism was dismissed by conservative thinkers like William...