“A GRIM CRUSADER”: WILLIAM DUDLEY PELLEY’S NATIONALIST RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION IN 1930S AMERICA
Bio: Sam Meade is a graduating senior at MSU studying Interdisciplinary Humanities and History and a minor in Religious Studies. He plans on attending Yale Divinity School to pursue an MAR comprehensive and hopes to eventually pursue a career in academia.
Abstract: William Dudley Pelley an American fascist, occult religious leader, and anti-semite rose to prominence in the 1930s demonstrates an undercurrent of American society. Pelley’s fascist organization, the Silver Shirts, was a militant political and religious group that advocated for dramatic political upheaval while advancing anti-semitic rhetoric. Through analyzing the House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of Pelley trial in 1939 and 1940 we are better able to understand Pelley’s influence on ‘Americanism’ and nationalist identity. By researching Pelley we can develop a greater understanding of the history of religious fascist and identitarian movements and the ways in which they engage in acts of “othering.” Through careful study of the ways in which new religious movements have interacted with political ideology in the past we can better approach the development of Christian nationalism in the our contemporary era.
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