Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Claire Conner is my big sister by three years. We shared twin beds in our Chicago home and I can attest to all her stories. I was there. At just 13, Claire was roped into the world of the John Birch Society. If she wasn't at school, she was stuffing envelopes and attending meetings. I was assigned to help with dinner and then go upstairs and keep my younger brother and baby sister quiet during the meetings. That's why Claire is on the full page Life Magazine spread and I am not. I was probably changing a diaper. Dinner at our house was unlike dinner at any home I've been in then or since. The only topics worthy of discussion were politics and religion. I've never met anyone else whose dinner conversation included how the Communist Chinese tortured women. It was tough to swallow your meatloaf but you better be quiet. Those who tried to change the subject or introduce another way of thinking paid a high price. If Claire's book was only a memoir about "What it was like to grow up in a cult," it would be interesting and important. But it is so much more. For a couple of years now, we've called one another and said, "Sheesh, did you hear what so-n-so in the right said NOW?" We recognized all of it. It is all old JBS stuff. We know. We had the bumper stickers and pamphlets to prove it. I've heard so many people wonder aloud, "Where DID these people come from?" Well, Claire answers that question in Wrapped in the Flag. It would be nice to think that the old John Birch Society faded away, but it hasn't. It's larger and stronger than it ever was. And it is influencing our political thinking and language whether we know it or not. I am so grateful that Claire asked herself a lot of hard questions about what we were told, and generously shares her very open and often painful story of learning how to think and speak for herself. I hope this book makes you think and speak for yourself. It certainly has made me remember.