The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis

In this scattershot polemic, journalist Sexton (American Rule) examines crisis points in Western history when “conservative reactionaries have attempted to reverse time and reaffirm authority, often through propaganda, conspiracy theories, attacks on education and culture, and bloodletting made holy through the lens of established religious mythology.” Sexton traces the roots of these crises to the fall of the “imperial cult of Rome” and the rise of “monotheistic Christianity,” with its “belief in divine truth and divine agents” and its “system of rewards and consequences that transcended earthly matters.” From there, he sketches periods when Christian mythology has been evoked to justify the suppression, exploitation, and persecution of marginalized groups. These include the colonization of America, “when slavery and genocide were necessary for humanity to reach its heavenly potential”; the Industrial Revolution, when capitalism and industrialization were seen as “God’s will”; and the Cold War, when anti-communist paranoia delivered “a deathblow to the New Deal consensus by targeting leftists within government, as well as people of color, women, and gay Americans.” Though Sexton’s claim that the U.S. is currently experiencing such a crisis strikes a chord, his prose tends toward the baroque, and he understates counterevidence of Christianity’s influence on progressive movements. This ambitious treatise bites off more than it can chew. Agent: Ross Harris, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Jan.)