by Jeff Sharlet
First published 2008
Jeff Sharlet exposes the Family, an elite fundamentalist network that operates from a Virginia estate overlooking the Potomac. This self-described invisible organization brings together congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators in confidential cells where they pray and plan for God-led leadership through quiet diplomacy rather than force. Sharlet traces the group's origins to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 gathered businessmen sympathetic to European fascism and fused far-right politics with authoritarian faith. The Family's current leader Doug Coe cites Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, declaring they work with existing power and build new power where they can't. While hosting public Prayer Breakfasts, they privately preach biblical capitalism, military strength, and American empire. Sharlet argues this sophisticated fundamentalist elite played crucial roles in dismantling the New Deal, waging the Cold War, and advancing globalization economics. He challenges readers to ask not what fundamentalists want, but what they have already accomplished in American democracy.
Genres: christian, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, current-affairs, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: expos, investigative-journalism
Setting: Virginia, Potomac
Period: 1935, 21st-century
454 pages · Hardcover · Harper