Review of 'Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy'

Elizabeth Gillespie McRae’s Mothers of Massive Resistance tells the story of the grassroots resistance to racial equality undertaken by white women between 1920 and 1970. This book shows how massive resistance was, first and foremost, a grassroots movement driven by white women. McRae illustrates how, in defending and shaping white supremacy white women ‘formed the foundation of a broader political platform informed by the Cold War, communism, housing policies, federal aid to education, tax reform and calls for limited government’ (p. 3-4). Mothers of Massive Resistance captures the depth and complexity of massive resistance, and in doing so, illuminates the links between women’s roles in support of white supremacy and in the development of national conservative organisations.