This detailed modern history lesson by an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago ties the increasingly organized development of the U.S. white power movement in its various forms to the return of disappointed and frustrated veterans of the Vietnam War, and the later gulf wars. She convincingly shows that this diverse group, which she refers to as white power advocates rather than as racists, Neo-Nazis, white supremacists or anti-semitics was and is much more coordinated, united and dangerous than is commonly appreciated. A large percentage of them are veterans who were poorly appreciated and poorly rewarded for their efforts on behalf of Uncle Sam. The author attributes their adoption of radical racist ideology and advocacy of violent overthrow of the government to this disappointment. But she never mentions what must be even more important- the general lack of education and job training of military recruits. The average age of Vietnam war era draftees was 19, and they were taught how to kill, often indiscriminately, but were untrained in any skills useful in peacetime. To me it seems that she identifies hundreds of trees, but not the forest.
There are constantly changing alliances between groups such as the branches of the Klu Klux Klan, the Order, the Posse Comitatus, the Aryan Nation, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, the White Patriot Party, The Covenant, United Citizens for Justice, United Racist Front, The Mountain Church, Patriots Defence Foundation and CMA (Civilian Military Assistance). Some are allowed to receive tax-deductible donations as religious organizations or charities. They often recruit active military personnel, steal heavy arms and ammunition from military bases ( especially in North Carolina) and train in secret paramilitary camps. Many are aligned with violent millennialist religious fanatics. Their increasing militarization is paralleled by the militarization of law enforcement with armoured personnel carriers stockpiled on both sides. Lawyers for the extremists ensure that juries are sympathetic to the extremists, often portrayed as patriots and protectors of white oppressed women. True believers in the conspiracy theory of a Zionist Occupation Government (later dubbed The New World Order), many also are dedicated survivalists preparing to outlive those of us left behind at the coming Apocalypse.
All writers about contemporary societal threats need to emphasize the danger to sell books. But this scholarly treatise (851 notes) convinced me that the threat from those extremists is very real and more serious than is generally appreciated. But it is also as dry as the current Australian desert and my high school history texts, and much more detailed than necessary to make that case. And the documentation stops in 2006 with the execution of Timmothy McVeigh, except for a few meaningless words about Donald Trump in the last three pages with the weak excuse that the effect of his blatant racism is too contemporary to analyze in a work of history. That is unforgivable. A knowledgeable scholar like this author could afford to provide us a useful, if only tentative, perspective of where we are now.
The Passionate Reader 