Ezra's Bookshelf

Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America

by Kathleen Belew · 353 pages · ~6.5 hrs

HistoryPolitics & Government

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The white power movement that exploded into public consciousness at Charlottesville in 2017 has deep roots in American history, and historian Kathleen Belew traces its evolution from the Vietnam War to the present. Returning veterans, radicalized by their experiences, joined existing racist organizations and transformed them into a paramilitary network dedicated to armed revolution. Belew, a professor at Northwestern, shows how the movement declared war on the federal government, carried out assassinations and robberies, and cultivated a decentralized structure designed to resist infiltration. The book follows the movement through crucial events: the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco, which provided recruiting propaganda; the Oklahoma City bombing, which demonstrated its lethal potential; and the long aftermath, when the movement continued organizing while public attention turned elsewhere. Belew argues that treating these events as isolated incidents of individual extremism misunderstands a coordinated social movement with shared ideology and tactics. She also examines the role of women in the movement, who took on significant organizational responsibilities despite the movement's patriarchal ideology. The white power movement has never gone away; it has retreated and surged in response to political conditions. Readers seeking to understand contemporary white nationalism's historical depth will find Belew's research alarming and necessary.

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