Authoritarian family discipline was sold as preserving national order.

Evidence

Dare to Discipline wasn’t just a guide to child-rearing. Owing to the social upheaval of the 1960s, the behavior of America’s youth had risen to a level of national concern. The reassertion of an authoritarian family structure would preserve order, discipline, and security—not only of the family but of the nation. To a generation of parents bewildered by how drastically things had changed since their own childhoods, the book offered definitive answers. It quickly sold over two million copies, establishing Dobson as a trusted voice in the emerging evangelical subculture. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 188

Categorization

• XREF: Directly evidences the book’s central claim that consumer products like bestselling parenting books built the evangelical political identity. — connects to: The family’s anti-authoritarian elements serve to stabilize existing authority relations — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 619