Scope and Contents
The material is arranged alphabetically by subject, and groups concerned with a particular issue are placed together under the issue, rather than being listed separately by name. Under GUN CONTROL, for example, the reader will find literature of half a dozen different organizations. Three subjects which have a particularly large number of entries - ANTI-COMMUNISM; CHINA; and CHRISTIAN GROUPS - are further divided by prominent individuals and organizations.
The subject headings should be understood as indicating the predominant concern of these groups rather than as strictly defining their interests. Wherever they may start, most of these groups are united by a cluster of principles ranging over a variety of fields. Even so single-minded an organization as the Prohibition Party, for example, insists that although "many have the mistaken impression that the program of the Prohibition Party is very limited in scope, being almost entirely devoted to the prohibition of alchoholic beverages...its platform has been considerably expanded to include seventeen different planks." [Dr. Lowell H. Coate, National Chairman, "The Prohibition Challenge."]
The range of their interests can be very roughly gauged from the subject headings: e.g. gun control, fluoridation, mental health, race relations, immigration, foreign relations. One of the chief issues discussed under the heading FOREIGN RELATIONS is the United Nations, which these groups see as a danger to the sovereignty of the United States. Only two women's groups are represented - the Minute Women, and an antisemitic group which issued the publication Women's Voice.
Publications of ad hoc groups formed around a particular issue or person, are filed under that subject - e.g. Bricker Amendment, Pillion Amendment, General Edwin A. Walker. Periodicals issued by organizations are filed under the name of the organization, e.g. American Legion, Firing Line. In no case are the runs of periodicals comprehensive, but where there are a large number, the inclusive dates are given.
Dates
- 1917-2010
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Transferred from the William R. Johnson Papers at the Yale Divinity Library, and other accessions; accession 2016-M-017 transferred from the Kaplanoff Librarian for American History, 2015.
Extent
7.42 Linear Feet (18 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
An artificial collection of pamphlets containing "conservative, reactionary, or right wing" publications on a wide range of topics including: China, anti-communism, Christian groups, race relations, and economics, 1917-2010.
Biographical / Historical
The core of these papers came from William R. Johnson (1878-1967), a Methodist missionary who lived in China from 1906 to 1942*. Caught in the Far East at the outbreak of World War II, he was repatriated to the United States in 1942 on the exchange ship, the Gripsholm. Following his arrival, he travelled and lectured extensively in the United States on the menace of Communist China and maintained an active interest in Chinese affairs to the end of his life. The collection reflects this interest in its rich array of brochures, leaflets, circular letters and publications of the many committees and individuals who were active in opposing recognition of Communist China. Of special note is the large collection of circular letters from Alfred Kohlberg, known as "Mr. China Lobby," who also headed the American China Policy Committee.
Johnson also subscribed to many conservative journals and news-letters, and received literature from a variety of individuals and tiny organizations devoted to special causes. The collection, as a consequence, contains many rare pieces of ephemeral conservative literature as well as newsletters from some of the better known figures, e.g. Gerald L.K. Smith, Elizabeth Dilling and Clarence Manion. As the reader will find, many of these items are emphatically underlined and sometimes accompanied by Johnson's marginal notes. While there are a few pieces added from other sources, the core of the collection reflects the issues of the 1950s and 1960s, providing a fascinating guide to the preoccupations, the style of thinking and the language of the right wing groups of that period.
*Johnson's personal papers are deposited at the Yale Divinity School, Manuscript Group Number 6.
- Anti-communist movements
- Antisemitism
- Asia
- China -- Foreign relations
- China -- Politics and government
- Firearms -- Law and legislation
- Johnson, William R., 1878-1967
- Race relations
- Right and Left (Political Science)
- United States -- Foreign relations
- United States -- Politics and government
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975
- Title
- Guide to the Right Wing Pamphlet collection
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- compiled by Ruth Gay and Christine Connolly
- Date
- December 1976
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Created In Accordance With Manuscripts And Archives Processing Manual
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository
Yale University Library
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven CT 06520-8240 US
(203) 432-1735
(203) 432-7441 (Fax)
beinecke.library@yale.edu
Location
Sterling Memorial Library
Room 147
120 High Street
New Haven, CT 06511