Download or read book A Conspiratorial Life written by Edward H. Miller and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-04-19 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This biography of Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society, documents how his idiosyncratic philosophizing infused right-wing politics in America. Edward H. Miller explores every aspect of Welch, detailing his youthful egotism; his innovations in candy-making; his mix of brilliance and incompetence; and the development of his raging political beliefs. The John Birch Society was long seen as occupying the farthest reaches of the political spectrum, blending paleo-conservatism, libertarianism, paranoia, and rabid anti-Communism. Miller demonstrates how the Society became central to Republican grassroots operations and how Welch became a guiding light of the right, on a par with William F. Buckley"--