A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate

by Kenneth S. Stern

Book Overview

Discusses the rise of private armies, or militias, of right-wing extremists in the United States, their motivations and beliefs, and the implications for the American social order. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684819163
• ISBN13: 9780684819167
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Accurate view of the paranoid, radical right.

Stern's research on the background and personal profiles of several militias and their leaders is accurate. The laughable "reviews" posted by obvious militia supporters only confirm the points that Stern brings up. Roland's review is particularly humorous in his comment that there is no connection between White supremacy groups and the militia movements - a complete joke. These groups and 'patriots' (I use that term facetiously) are the singular most dangerous element in America's society today. At their base, they are essentially a fringe of uneducated, frustrated and misguided losers - a dangerous combination of characteristics. They hide behind the veneer of Christianity and patriotism but are nothing more than domestic terrorists. Stern has it right.

Seems more convincing than its detractors.

Well, I'm just as sorry as I can be that the members of the various militias feel that they're the victims of paranoia. Maybe now they have some idea of how the ACLU, the feminist movement, gay rights advocates, the Black Panthers, Americans for the Separation of Church and State, and dozens of other organizations feel when they're judged unfairly; of course, none of those agencies are cursed by the militias' burden of extremist ties, reprinted hate literature, and those pesky 140-odd dead in Oklahoma City.I found Mr. Stern's book to be informative and convincing. As for his detractors, I just have to know: if militias aren't bands of right-wing racist/sexist/homophobic/religiously intolerant fanatics, then why are they exclusively made up of straight white Christian males? Where are the black militias, the Asian-American militias, the Jewish militias, the Muslim militias, the gay militias, the woman-dominated militias, or even the MIXED militias? If the militias aren't the vile and dangerous threats to the American way of life that Mr. Stern depicts them as, then what's with all the HATE LITERATURE and GUNS? What am I missing here?

Kenneth S. Stern

Stern's "book" is really just a joke, right?