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The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right
September 11, 2001, focused America's attention on the terrorist threat from abroad, but as the World Trade Center towers collapsed, domestic right-wing hate groups were celebrating in the United States. "Hallelu-Yahweh! May the WAR be started! DEATH to His enemies, may the World Trade Center BURN TO THE GROUND!" announced August Kreis of the paramilitary group, the Posse Comitatus. "We can blame no others than ourselves for our problems due to the fact that we allow ...Satan's children, called jews (sic) today, to have dominion over our lives."
The Terrorist Next Door reveals the men behind far right groups like the Posse Comitatus - Latin for "power of the county" -- and the ideas that inspired their attempts to bring about a racist revolution in the United States.
Timothy McVeigh was executed for killing 168 people when he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, but The Terrorist Next Door goes well beyond the destruction in Oklahoma City and takes readers deeper and more broadly inside the Posse and other groups that comprise the paramilitary right. From the emergence of white supremacist groups following the Civil War, through the segregationist violence of the civil rights era, the right-wing tax protest movement of the 1970s, the farm crisis of the 1980s and the militia movement of the 1990s, the book details the roots of the radical right. It also tells the story of men like William Potter Gale, a retired Army officer and the founder of the Posse Comitatus whose hate-filled sermons and calls to armed insurrection have fueled generations of tax protesters, militiamen and other anti-government zealots since the 1960s.
Written by Daniel Levitas, a national expert on the origins and activities of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, The Terrorist Next Door is painstakingly researched and includes rich detail from official documents (including the FBI), private archives and confidential sources never before disclosed. In detailing these and other developments, The Terrorist Next Door will prove to be the most definitive history of the roots of the American militia movement and the rural radical right ever written.
The Terrorist Next Door reveals the men behind far right groups like the Posse Comitatus - Latin for "power of the county" -- and the ideas that inspired their attempts to bring about a racist revolution in the United States.
Timothy McVeigh was executed for killing 168 people when he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, but The Terrorist Next Door goes well beyond the destruction in Oklahoma City and takes readers deeper and more broadly inside the Posse and other groups that comprise the paramilitary right. From the emergence of white supremacist groups following the Civil War, through the segregationist violence of the civil rights era, the right-wing tax protest movement of the 1970s, the farm crisis of the 1980s and the militia movement of the 1990s, the book details the roots of the radical right. It also tells the story of men like William Potter Gale, a retired Army officer and the founder of the Posse Comitatus whose hate-filled sermons and calls to armed insurrection have fueled generations of tax protesters, militiamen and other anti-government zealots since the 1960s.
Written by Daniel Levitas, a national expert on the origins and activities of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, The Terrorist Next Door is painstakingly researched and includes rich detail from official documents (including the FBI), private archives and confidential sources never before disclosed. In detailing these and other developments, The Terrorist Next Door will prove to be the most definitive history of the roots of the American militia movement and the rural radical right ever written.
544 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2002
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December 17, 2012
In light of America's continued gun violence and the gun nut lobby that defends it, this is a must read
Daniel Levitas details the real terrorists nobody wants to talk about, even after Tim McVeigh, even after US mass gun caches being found, even after tea party assassination discussions, many of them racist in nature.
As long as there is a highly armed radical right in America, with a core of anti-Semitism above all else, as long as conspiracy theorists can get the ear of Congress or even still occasionally get elected to it, this subject will NEVER be exhausted.
I was on the 4/5 borderline for this book, but went with a 5-star rating in part to offset some low ratings, including one in particular, as I did on Amazon.
This book does NOT, to me, require huge amounts of previous knowledge. That said, a few things could have been explained better, such as the creation and use of Fractional Reserve Checks, and what exactly triggered DePugh to start the Minutemen.
That said, Levitas does do a good job of longitudinally tracking the rise of many modern rightist movements, whether various state militias, Christian Identity groups, the remnants of the Posse Comitatus movement, their interlinking, and how their growth has been triggered by social problems.
Levitas DOES give a sympathetic portrait of how many people -- notably Midwestern farmers -- got hit by a variety of problems in the mid-70s and '80s. But, as Levitas also shows, progressive farmers eventually recognized that the majority of the American Agricultural Movement was buying racist/conspiracy theory bilge hook, line and sinker, and the then shows how progressive-minded farmers allied with unions also hurt by the farm crisis, and even Jesse Jackson, in an attempt to find progressive, non-violent answers to their problems.
Nobody forced any farmers to swallow anti-Semitic bilge; nobody forced them to believe that "Fractional Reserve Checks" would actually work; nobody forced them to not pay their taxes; or anything else. Those farmers that chose to do these things exactly did that -- they CHOSE to follow in the footsteps of the radical right.
These people, in turn, are surely part of the roots of today's tea party movement.
That, in turn, shows that this subject has not been exhausted. Levitas predicts that beyond the anti-Semitic core, the radical right will morph and morph as it finds necessary.
Levitas gets at that reality, even though he wrote two years before a radical right compound with guns and explosives was uncovered near Tyler, Texas, less than two years ago. And, in 2011, you had a tax protestor kamikaze his plane into an IRS regional office. Levitas could easily have written another 200 pages and not exhausted this subject.
Or, he could give us an updated, revised version of the book.
Daniel Levitas details the real terrorists nobody wants to talk about, even after Tim McVeigh, even after US mass gun caches being found, even after tea party assassination discussions, many of them racist in nature.
As long as there is a highly armed radical right in America, with a core of anti-Semitism above all else, as long as conspiracy theorists can get the ear of Congress or even still occasionally get elected to it, this subject will NEVER be exhausted.
I was on the 4/5 borderline for this book, but went with a 5-star rating in part to offset some low ratings, including one in particular, as I did on Amazon.
This book does NOT, to me, require huge amounts of previous knowledge. That said, a few things could have been explained better, such as the creation and use of Fractional Reserve Checks, and what exactly triggered DePugh to start the Minutemen.
That said, Levitas does do a good job of longitudinally tracking the rise of many modern rightist movements, whether various state militias, Christian Identity groups, the remnants of the Posse Comitatus movement, their interlinking, and how their growth has been triggered by social problems.
Levitas DOES give a sympathetic portrait of how many people -- notably Midwestern farmers -- got hit by a variety of problems in the mid-70s and '80s. But, as Levitas also shows, progressive farmers eventually recognized that the majority of the American Agricultural Movement was buying racist/conspiracy theory bilge hook, line and sinker, and the then shows how progressive-minded farmers allied with unions also hurt by the farm crisis, and even Jesse Jackson, in an attempt to find progressive, non-violent answers to their problems.
Nobody forced any farmers to swallow anti-Semitic bilge; nobody forced them to believe that "Fractional Reserve Checks" would actually work; nobody forced them to not pay their taxes; or anything else. Those farmers that chose to do these things exactly did that -- they CHOSE to follow in the footsteps of the radical right.
These people, in turn, are surely part of the roots of today's tea party movement.
That, in turn, shows that this subject has not been exhausted. Levitas predicts that beyond the anti-Semitic core, the radical right will morph and morph as it finds necessary.
Levitas gets at that reality, even though he wrote two years before a radical right compound with guns and explosives was uncovered near Tyler, Texas, less than two years ago. And, in 2011, you had a tax protestor kamikaze his plane into an IRS regional office. Levitas could easily have written another 200 pages and not exhausted this subject.
Or, he could give us an updated, revised version of the book.
May 13, 2011
Well, this book has some major flaws in it. While some groups and individuals mentioned here are definitely dangerous, he keeps bringing Timothy McVeigh as a prime example, he spreads his net a bit wide. By the time he's through a simple tax protestor is equated with someone who sends death threats to the IRS.
If you look at his time line (listed in the back of the book) of "events" supporting his premise you'll find some criminal items, but you'll also find things like "the U.S.Senate votes to reform tax laws". He sees this as a response to "right wing tax protesters", or that "20 states passed a "nonbinding resolution" supporting State's Rights"...sinister right?
Yes there are dangerous people out there and I suppose everyone has their own "pet fear" or "boogey-group" (that's like a boogeyman only with more than one individual. Maybe it should have been "boogeymen" but that seemed sexist). Mr.Levitas' "boogey-group" seems be anyone to the right of George McGovern.
If you're at all familiar with some conspiracy theories you'll know that a common practice is to take unconnected evidence (as in death threats to the IRS and protesting the income tax) and forging "apparent connections. We get a bit of that here.
So, not so great. Yes there are dangerous people on both sides of the political spectrum, but the great majority of people who are right of center were not "glad to see" the 9/11 disaster nor are they looking to set up a racist, antisemitic...what? Non-government?
Oh well. Not impressed, been there before... mostly just propaganda in what could have been a book that raised questions and discussed issues.
If you look at his time line (listed in the back of the book) of "events" supporting his premise you'll find some criminal items, but you'll also find things like "the U.S.Senate votes to reform tax laws". He sees this as a response to "right wing tax protesters", or that "20 states passed a "nonbinding resolution" supporting State's Rights"...sinister right?
Yes there are dangerous people out there and I suppose everyone has their own "pet fear" or "boogey-group" (that's like a boogeyman only with more than one individual. Maybe it should have been "boogeymen" but that seemed sexist). Mr.Levitas' "boogey-group" seems be anyone to the right of George McGovern.
If you're at all familiar with some conspiracy theories you'll know that a common practice is to take unconnected evidence (as in death threats to the IRS and protesting the income tax) and forging "apparent connections. We get a bit of that here.
So, not so great. Yes there are dangerous people on both sides of the political spectrum, but the great majority of people who are right of center were not "glad to see" the 9/11 disaster nor are they looking to set up a racist, antisemitic...what? Non-government?
Oh well. Not impressed, been there before... mostly just propaganda in what could have been a book that raised questions and discussed issues.
January 11, 2008
Would you agree that PETA, ALF, or Green Peace are terrorists? Well, it depends on the definition of terrorists, right? A perfect definition really isn't available. The DoD came close but there's always something left out. Essentially, terrorism is the use, threatened use, or attempted use of force or violence against a group of people or civilians of a sovereign government, for the purpose of creating fear to influence that government or group to change something or bend to the will of the aggressor. So, when Green Peace rams their massive ship into an oil tanker, they are committing an act of terrorism. When PETA burns down a science lab that uses animals for testing, they are committing an act of terrorism. When a Christian group bombs an abortion clinic, they are committing an act of terrorism. These terrorist groups are also known as Domestic Terrorist groups. International terrorism (i.e. Islamic) is the other major field of study in counter-terrorism efforts. See my list of books for that one because it's even better than this book! So, if you want to know all about Domestic Terrorist groups in the US, this is your book!
January 27, 2021
A little dated but, still remains highly relevant.
April 6, 2013
A stunningly researched overview of the rise of the Posse Comitatus movement in the United States. How its principle adherents William Gale and Mike Beach spun their tax protesting, jew hating, gun loving, racist anti-federalism out of the Christian Identity congregations entangling the farm movement while spawning the modern militia movements.
Each chapter details yet another of the petty power plays these white supremacist con men run in order to bolster their reputation and grow membership. Whether it was holding revivalist style meetings full of screaming mad One World Government fear mongering; or if it was inciting farm occupations to directly challenge local, state, and federal authority, one is struck by the sheer folly of it all. The angry play acting that is the direct result of their fantastical world view.
Levitas does an exceptional job at defining the slow redefining creep of "States' Rights." It functions as a code word for so much historical oppression and injustice - the kind that God Fearing, Slave Owning, recently Defeated Confederates suffered at the close of the Civil War. Marching through the murderous history of Jim Crow right into the Federal Occupation during the Civil Rights Integration movement, State's Rights' focus becomes a granular term for a return to all sorts of horror.
Levitas seems incredibly more comfortable at the beginning of the book, detailing the raise of Bill Gale and the Posse. But as the book moves into the more recent past, Bush I forward, Levitas sees his diligence falter. The militia movement evolved into a more sophisticated and savvy era, one that blatantly espoused its Neo-Nazi fetishism, while simultaneously sugar coating it into a pop culture kitsch.
Yet it was also the time of the most brazen crimes - traffic spot shooting, bank robberies, and ultimately the Oklahoma Bombing. I doubt this minor flaw with the book is intentional or even conscious. I feel that Levitas, simply, could not inhabit the present history with the same dispassion and distance.
The chapters on the birth of the farm movement and the Reagan Era dismantling of the agrarian America are simply brutally important. They inform the scope of the deregulatory consequences, foreshadow all plays in the play book of Corporatism, and see the beginnings of the modern obstructionist Republican Party. The fact that America's farmers were systematically thrown off their farms, clearing the way for the multinationals to feed the world, brought with it a whole breadth of neoconservatist, racist ideology, should not be this surprising.
The fact that these fringe techniques at duping and distracting the population should be picked up and used on a national scale to sell a ten year war or to drive a cable news network is, probably, the most terrorizing lesson of this whole book.
Each chapter details yet another of the petty power plays these white supremacist con men run in order to bolster their reputation and grow membership. Whether it was holding revivalist style meetings full of screaming mad One World Government fear mongering; or if it was inciting farm occupations to directly challenge local, state, and federal authority, one is struck by the sheer folly of it all. The angry play acting that is the direct result of their fantastical world view.
Levitas does an exceptional job at defining the slow redefining creep of "States' Rights." It functions as a code word for so much historical oppression and injustice - the kind that God Fearing, Slave Owning, recently Defeated Confederates suffered at the close of the Civil War. Marching through the murderous history of Jim Crow right into the Federal Occupation during the Civil Rights Integration movement, State's Rights' focus becomes a granular term for a return to all sorts of horror.
Levitas seems incredibly more comfortable at the beginning of the book, detailing the raise of Bill Gale and the Posse. But as the book moves into the more recent past, Bush I forward, Levitas sees his diligence falter. The militia movement evolved into a more sophisticated and savvy era, one that blatantly espoused its Neo-Nazi fetishism, while simultaneously sugar coating it into a pop culture kitsch.
Yet it was also the time of the most brazen crimes - traffic spot shooting, bank robberies, and ultimately the Oklahoma Bombing. I doubt this minor flaw with the book is intentional or even conscious. I feel that Levitas, simply, could not inhabit the present history with the same dispassion and distance.
The chapters on the birth of the farm movement and the Reagan Era dismantling of the agrarian America are simply brutally important. They inform the scope of the deregulatory consequences, foreshadow all plays in the play book of Corporatism, and see the beginnings of the modern obstructionist Republican Party. The fact that America's farmers were systematically thrown off their farms, clearing the way for the multinationals to feed the world, brought with it a whole breadth of neoconservatist, racist ideology, should not be this surprising.
The fact that these fringe techniques at duping and distracting the population should be picked up and used on a national scale to sell a ten year war or to drive a cable news network is, probably, the most terrorizing lesson of this whole book.
September 27, 2021
A bit more indepth than I was looking for, but that isnt the authors fault. Definitely weird to read about past supremacist movements that talk and behave exactly like the MAGAts
July 16, 2016
How does the grandson of Jewish immigrants become a leading voice in anti-Semitic movements? The Terrorist Next Door reviews domestic militancy in the United States, as viewed through the life of Bill Gale, founder of the Posse Comitatus. Taking its name from an act meant to prevent Federal troops from interfering in civil affairs, the group’s abiding faith was animosity towards a government viewed as corrupt at best, and taken over by alien forces at worst. (“Alien” in this case referring to the Illuminati, Freemasons, Jews, or agents of the One World Government. No one here fears the sneaky Reptilian menace.) Covering essentially the same kind of reactionary violence as Harvest of Rage, but with less grace, it doesn't avail much other than to build on biases. Unfortunately, the use of one monstrous man as a lens to view related movements casts an evil light on even the comparatively innocent.
The Posse Comitatus is a fairly vile bunch, a Klan without robes and with even less concern about being seen as decent. Gale himself took to the racist politics of the Christian Identity movement – which sees Anglo-Saxons as the true children of Israel, and contemporary Jews as Russian pretenders – fairly early on, but the popular support he built was based on a kind of localism on steroids. The basic government unit of every American state, he maintained, was the county, and its only constitutionally-sanctioned officer the Sheriff. The sheriff could summon the men of the county as a posse to deal with serious threats to law and order. Gale’s posse considered itself a self-organizing and constitutionally-sanctioned force in service of the same. Their enemies varied, as Gale was able to build a following beyond his initial band of white supremacists, appealing first to farmers on the road to ruin and then later the burgeoning tax resistance movement. Later still, during the Clinton administration, the comitatus would inspire dozens of self-organized militia movements, all of which viewed the federal government as its chief object of contempt, dread, and hostility.
Gale’s posse wasn’t merely a right-wing crank group that gathered together to swap bits of foreboding news and complain about what the government was up to; they were a force in the true sense of the word, applying violence to 'solve' problems. One man with a claim on a farm, for instance, called the group to come to his aid: they took possession of the place, running off the owner and blockading the only access road. They also vigorously defended themselves, shooting Federal agents who attempted to subdue them. Civilian casualties in Federal encounters gone wrong only inflamed passions and spurred on greater activity: after the ideologically-linked Oklahoma City bombing, for instance, militia involvement grew. The same was true after President Clinton introduced the Brady Bill, viewed as an attempt by the government to disarm the populace.
Like Harvest of Rage, The Terrorist Next Door is written as a warning, but whereas Harvest seeks to understand its subjects, Terrorist is content to condemn them and anyone it can connect ever so tangentially to their cause. Under Levitas' pen, anyone who resists the government, who cries overreach -- especially if they do so from a Christian perspective -- is a racist with a lynching rope in the closet. The problem with this is that the people covered in this book aren't part of a uniform organization, or ones even like the Comitatus. For instance, Alabama's chief justice, Roy Moore takes heat here for installing a monument to the ten commandments within his courthouse. As problematic as that is from a constitutional perspective, to smear him as connected to the Christian Identity clan is contemptible. Even those with actual connections to Gale's group weren't under his violent command: they had their own motivations and ideas for taking action, like attempting to pay tax bills with fraudulent checks and filing false liens in their courthouses. Criminal, yes, but 'terrorist'? Tarring any reaction against the growth and abuses of the state as violently racist makes as much sense as declaring at the Federal Reserve is a Zionist conspiracy to take over the world, or regarding every man on a motorcycle as a card-carrying member of the Mongols.
My interest in this book came from the hopes of gaining some insight into the militia mentality, but Levitas is more concerned with declaring that they exist, they're everywhere, and something oughta be done about `em. Sure, have the Federal government go after them -- that's worked so well so far. Levitas himself documents how militancy and paranoia flourished amid real or perceived persecution, spiking after Waco, Oklahoma City, and the Brady Bill. Obviously, going after armed people who already think the government is against them is a really swell idea that will lead to happy times for everyone. At least the author of Harvest of Rage knew, as nutty as his subjects could be, at the root of their paranoia lay real despair and genuine concerns -- about their status as economic losers in a globalized world, or the collusion of big agriculture, big banks, and big government. Their pain and fear was twisted by the Bill Gales of this world, but for Levitas anyone remotely connected to Gale is as bad as him. This is an alarmist and dismissive account that will make those already predisposed to view grassroots reaction as ignorant, racist, and violent feel justified, but has little purpose beyond that Its focus on the Comitatus has its uses, but as far as understanding right-wing militancy goes, this is far inferior to Harvest of Rage.
Related:
Harvest of Rage, Joel Dyer
http://thisweekatthelibrary.blogspot....
The Posse Comitatus is a fairly vile bunch, a Klan without robes and with even less concern about being seen as decent. Gale himself took to the racist politics of the Christian Identity movement – which sees Anglo-Saxons as the true children of Israel, and contemporary Jews as Russian pretenders – fairly early on, but the popular support he built was based on a kind of localism on steroids. The basic government unit of every American state, he maintained, was the county, and its only constitutionally-sanctioned officer the Sheriff. The sheriff could summon the men of the county as a posse to deal with serious threats to law and order. Gale’s posse considered itself a self-organizing and constitutionally-sanctioned force in service of the same. Their enemies varied, as Gale was able to build a following beyond his initial band of white supremacists, appealing first to farmers on the road to ruin and then later the burgeoning tax resistance movement. Later still, during the Clinton administration, the comitatus would inspire dozens of self-organized militia movements, all of which viewed the federal government as its chief object of contempt, dread, and hostility.
Gale’s posse wasn’t merely a right-wing crank group that gathered together to swap bits of foreboding news and complain about what the government was up to; they were a force in the true sense of the word, applying violence to 'solve' problems. One man with a claim on a farm, for instance, called the group to come to his aid: they took possession of the place, running off the owner and blockading the only access road. They also vigorously defended themselves, shooting Federal agents who attempted to subdue them. Civilian casualties in Federal encounters gone wrong only inflamed passions and spurred on greater activity: after the ideologically-linked Oklahoma City bombing, for instance, militia involvement grew. The same was true after President Clinton introduced the Brady Bill, viewed as an attempt by the government to disarm the populace.
Like Harvest of Rage, The Terrorist Next Door is written as a warning, but whereas Harvest seeks to understand its subjects, Terrorist is content to condemn them and anyone it can connect ever so tangentially to their cause. Under Levitas' pen, anyone who resists the government, who cries overreach -- especially if they do so from a Christian perspective -- is a racist with a lynching rope in the closet. The problem with this is that the people covered in this book aren't part of a uniform organization, or ones even like the Comitatus. For instance, Alabama's chief justice, Roy Moore takes heat here for installing a monument to the ten commandments within his courthouse. As problematic as that is from a constitutional perspective, to smear him as connected to the Christian Identity clan is contemptible. Even those with actual connections to Gale's group weren't under his violent command: they had their own motivations and ideas for taking action, like attempting to pay tax bills with fraudulent checks and filing false liens in their courthouses. Criminal, yes, but 'terrorist'? Tarring any reaction against the growth and abuses of the state as violently racist makes as much sense as declaring at the Federal Reserve is a Zionist conspiracy to take over the world, or regarding every man on a motorcycle as a card-carrying member of the Mongols.
My interest in this book came from the hopes of gaining some insight into the militia mentality, but Levitas is more concerned with declaring that they exist, they're everywhere, and something oughta be done about `em. Sure, have the Federal government go after them -- that's worked so well so far. Levitas himself documents how militancy and paranoia flourished amid real or perceived persecution, spiking after Waco, Oklahoma City, and the Brady Bill. Obviously, going after armed people who already think the government is against them is a really swell idea that will lead to happy times for everyone. At least the author of Harvest of Rage knew, as nutty as his subjects could be, at the root of their paranoia lay real despair and genuine concerns -- about their status as economic losers in a globalized world, or the collusion of big agriculture, big banks, and big government. Their pain and fear was twisted by the Bill Gales of this world, but for Levitas anyone remotely connected to Gale is as bad as him. This is an alarmist and dismissive account that will make those already predisposed to view grassroots reaction as ignorant, racist, and violent feel justified, but has little purpose beyond that Its focus on the Comitatus has its uses, but as far as understanding right-wing militancy goes, this is far inferior to Harvest of Rage.
Related:
Harvest of Rage, Joel Dyer
http://thisweekatthelibrary.blogspot....
March 22, 2019
This history of extremism and racism in the United States was enlightening, although I would have personally been more interested in the reasons individuals embrace these violent ideologies of blame and anger. The author was thorough, but anything from the 90s onward feels rushed. Some of the back and forth storytelling tangents were confusing.
December 10, 2022
Focuses on the posse comitatus/tax protestor/militia movement that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. If that's what you're looking to learn about this book is excellent. If you're looking for something on the Trump-era groups this arguably explains their foundation, but doesn't discuss those specific groups.
February 28, 2025
Another one I didn't finish, partly because it's too depressing & partly because because I've read it elsewhere. It describes all the wacko fringe movements that have become the rule as opposed to the exception. I don't mean to bum rap the author. It is simply that I see no personal gain in reading more material about this insanity.
May 5, 2025
Probably one of the most important books I've ever read. I'm a reasonably well-educated person, but I barely knew about any of this. If you want to understand the current state of America, read this book.
May 19, 2023
Excellent, thorough, chilling
Read
July 30, 2025a very interesting subject, but it went into more detail than most general readers could possibly deal with
Read
September 1, 2025The book has a lot of information about the radical right, especially about the Posse Comitatus. It's wordy. Also, there is a double timeline, which can be confusing.
June 12, 2020
Informative, factually dense account of the militarized rural right. Some really interesting descriptions of the beliefs of the tax protester and sovereign citizen movement. The litany of grifters orbiting the American right is really really interesting. Some sketchiness in charting the path of the Oklahoma City Bombing, which I wish there had been more detail. I also wish there was a little more sociological context for the well articulated factual history. I would love any recommendations for books about right wing grifters.
July 23, 2013
When I picked up the book, I thought it would be more of a history/treatise on American Right-Wing groups. Instead, it was something of a history lesson, complete with terrorist-tree of Bill Gale, a hypocritical man, born to a Jewish family who became a raging anti-semite, and whose actions spawned multiple branches of hate groups mostly in the Western half of the country.
At least, I think that is what the book is about.
The truth is, the book jumps around quite a bit. I learned a lot about the underground arch-conservative, anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic and pro-gun groups which have largely been forgotten in the post-9/11, as we mainstream Americans focused our attention on international terrorism. But this text is just too bouncy to have been a thorough review. I get the impression that the author was trying desperately to condense an entire semester's worth of lecture material into 350 pages of book. Well, unfortunately, he did not succeed admirably.
The book gets two stars for how well researched it was, and how informative it was, but it was a slow, confusing read, that I think should have properly been expanded into three or more volumes to have been truly effective.
At least, I think that is what the book is about.
The truth is, the book jumps around quite a bit. I learned a lot about the underground arch-conservative, anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic and pro-gun groups which have largely been forgotten in the post-9/11, as we mainstream Americans focused our attention on international terrorism. But this text is just too bouncy to have been a thorough review. I get the impression that the author was trying desperately to condense an entire semester's worth of lecture material into 350 pages of book. Well, unfortunately, he did not succeed admirably.
The book gets two stars for how well researched it was, and how informative it was, but it was a slow, confusing read, that I think should have properly been expanded into three or more volumes to have been truly effective.
Read
December 4, 2008OK, so maybe I just used this for research and didn't read every word. But it's a very interesting history of the American extreme right since the early 1970s. William Potter Gale is the most important racist nutjob you've never heard of.
March 19, 2014
Too many people are introduced within each chapter, making it difficult to follow. Some scenes are a bit too graphic for my taste as well. Overall it is informative and I learned a lot about right wing terrorism, although it is a dry, dull read.
August 9, 2008
very excellent
April 24, 2015
Let's all move to Idaho and buy guns. I know. I'm being flippant, but really....
Read
February 19, 2018This book was written by a great person with whom I worked during the Farm Crisis in the 1980's. At that time, antisemitism was finding fertile ground in rural America as hard-working farmers searched for reasons why they were losing the homes and land that had been handed down through multiple generations. Dan came into Colorado a couple of times during that period and reached out to farmers to show them that blaming another culture for this tragedy was misdirected and would not save their farms. I picked this book up because I thought it would be about the 1980's. The Farm Crisis plays a part in the book, but as a chapter in a much larger story of hatred and bigotry.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews