Thank you, 1517 Media, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished Preparing For War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—and What Comes Next, by Bradley Onishi.

The author was a former christian nationalist who has turned his life around. He is now currently the co-host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, which speaks out against the movement. I have listened to that occasionally, but since I have way too many podcasts to listen to, as well as audiobooks, I haven’t listened to it that often. After reading this book, I will be listening to that one more often.

The author very early on sums up the problem we are facing in this country with white christian nationalism: “Expressing a desire to overthrow democracy is an extremist position. But it is also now a mainstream one in the United States.” He asserts that, “While Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency and the events following January 6 may have been shocking, they were the outcome of sixty years of Christian nationalist organizing to ‘retake’ the country from those who want to ‘destroy’ it. If the idea that ‘this country needs a dictator’ or the desire to ‘overthrow’ democracy is now mainstream, it is because of the white Christian nationalist organizers, pastors, fundraisers, politicians, and shadow network operatives who have been preparing for war on their own country since the 1960s.” He then successfully proves his case over the course of the book.

The author was one of the few who got this right about Trump. He “was not an imperfect candidate who somehow managed to garner the votes of White Christians. He was the prototype of the candidate White Christians had been searching for since the early 1960s.”

The book did a very good job on the history of the movement, as well as his coverage of today’s time. The chapter on “MAGA Myths” was the strongest of the book.

While the book is about the movement, the author did an outstanding job bringing in his own experiences as a former follower to help make his points.

I give this book an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book originally finished reading this on July 18, 2024.