say this, mean that

Suburban Warriors provides a good deal of insight into the early days of the conservative movement as well as tracing its ideological and political evolution over a number of years. However, as I was not all that familiar with the conservative movement prior to reading this book, McGirr has left me questioning its essence. She paints the early conservatism as a primarily reactionary and often times paranoid movement which was afraid of change and social progress. She repeatedly concedes that this was not necessarily always case, but her evidence seems to overwhelming point to this conclusion. At numerous points in the book McGirr seems to attempt to balance out her narrative by saying things that downplay the often extremist tone of the movement but then dedicates substantial block quotes to these extremist voices. At best her tone comes across a bit naïve, at worst it betrays a degree of dishonesty. If her view is that conservatism was primarily extremist, in nature then she should make that case. However, if she believes that the extremist element was marginal, than she should provide evidence in support of that premise. It seems as though she is attempting to draw certain conclusions beneath the surface of her main narrative.