The image of the militia as ordinary people coming together in times of crisis to help their fellow citizens is deeply embedded in American society and culture. Recent claimants to the militia title have adopted this image even as they have promoted a radically anti-government, populist conservative political agenda. Author Lane Crothers uses social movement theory to explore militia activity and ideology throughout the last decade, illuminating why militia members are enraged by U.S. governmental policies and why their rage is unlikely to coalesce into a large political movement. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Timothy McVeigh serves as the most infamous representative of the militia movement as well as the centerpiece of this book, which examines the ideology of the movement, the American myths within which that ideology is rooted, and the impact of a number of key events on the ebb and flow of the movement, including the Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs and the Oklahoma City bombing. Crothers (political science and government, Illinois State U.) analyzes the racist, individualist, and millenarian cultural underpinnings of the militias and the "mythmaking" surrounding the above-mentioned events, but he fails to seriously consider either the impact of growing economic uncertainty or the possibility that the government may indeed have been guilty of covering up wrongdoing at Ruby Ridge or Waco. He does warn that although the militias may appear to be on the wane, the perceptions that the USA Patriot Act and the new Department of Homeland Security are unduly strengthening the federal government could give them a new lease on life. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)