What radical group overthrows the U.S. government in the novel?

The Sons of Jacob are the radical group that overthrows the U.S. government in The Handmaid's Tale. They stage an attack that kills the President and much of Congress, suspend the Constitution, and establish the theocratic Republic of Gilead.

The group uses a religiously extreme political program to seize power during a period of social instability and declining fertility. Gilead then reorganizes society into rigid classes and removes women's legal rights, including the rights to own property, work freely, and read or write. The regime presents its rule as a restoration of biblical order, but the novel depicts it as authoritarian and coercive.

The Sons of Jacob should not be confused with Mayday, the underground resistance network. Mayday works against Gilead after its creation, while the Sons of Jacob are the revolutionary movement responsible for the coup and the regime's founding. The Eyes of God, meanwhile, are Gilead's secret police.