Preparing for War, Bradley Onishi
Preparing for War, Bradley Onishi
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Preparing for War
The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—and What Comes Next

Author: Bradley Onishi

Narrator: Bradley Onishi

Unabridged: 7 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/20/2023


Synopsis

The insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was not a blip or an aberration. It was the logical outcome of years of a White evangelical subculture's preparation for war. Religion scholar and former insider Bradley Onishi maps the origins of White Christian nationalism and traces its offshoots in Preparing for War.

Combining his own experiences in the youth groups and prayer meetings of the 1990s with an immersive look at the steady blending of White grievance politics with evangelicalism, Onishi crafts an engrossing account of the years-long campaign of White Christian nationalism that led to January 6. How did the rise of what Onishi calls the New Religious Right, between 1960 and 2015, give birth to violent White Christian nationalism during the Trump presidency and beyond? What propelled some of the most conservative religious communities in the country—communities of which Onishi was once a part—to ignite a cold civil war?

Through chapters on White supremacy and segregationist theologies, conspiracy theories, the Christian-school movement, purity culture, and the right-wing media ecosystem, Onishi pulls back the curtain on a subculture that birthed a movement and has taken a dangerous turn.

About Bradley Onishi

Bradley Onishi is a scholar of religion and cohost of the Straight White American Jesus podcast. His writing has been published in the New York Times, LA Review of Books, and Religion & Politics, among other outlets. He holds degrees from Azusa Pacific University, Oxford University, and L'institut catholique de Paris, and he received his PhD from the University of California at Santa Barbara. A TEDx speaker and the author, editor, or translator of four previous books, Onishi teaches at the University of San Francisco and lives in the Bay Area with his wife and daughter.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kevin on February 09, 2024

The Case For Inevitability It is author Bradley Onishi’s contention that the Capital Insurrection of January 6, 2021, was neither an aberration nor some peaceful protest gone tragically awry. Onishi maintains, with solid reasoning, that J6 was not only predicable but, given the trajectory of White Ch......more

Goodreads review by Zakcq on January 02, 2023

This is a must read for anyone who grew up in fundamentalist Christianity and has tried to make sense of how that turned into the virulent White Christian cruelty of the Trumpists. This book clearly articulated so many thoughts I’ve had since (thankfully) breaking away from those roots and connected......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on September 25, 2024

*I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.* This book is part memoir and part scholarly argument and is hands-down one of the most compelling nonfiction books I've read from an academic. I stayed up late to finish it and was thoroughly scared by the last few chapters. Bradl......more

Goodreads review by Emily on July 02, 2023

Another great read as I dive into the white-nationalist-evangelical parts of religion I have been fed throughout my life. This book unlocked a childhood memory of 8 year old me at Bible summer camp standing in a large circle every morning, saying the pledge of allegiance around a giant flag, and the......more

Goodreads review by Peacegal on February 03, 2024

The author traces the evolution of the American right wing's onward march to more and more extreme positions, through his own experience as a Christian conservative who eventually turned his back on that community. As Onishi details, Trump, MAGA, and the Jan. 6 riots didn't just materialize out of t......more