Confronting Right-Wing Extremism and Terrorism in the USA.
By George Michael. New York: Routledge, 2003. 256p. $104.95.
“Right-wing extremist” is a label that covers a lot of
territory (radical Second Amendmentists, antitax and antigovernment
extremists, radical Christians, in addition to a variety of white
supremacist groups: Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, skinhead), but it is a term
that perhaps became unavoidable, at least as a practical matter, after
Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal government building in Oklahoma City
in 1995, killing 168. This is a book written in the post–Oklahoma
City period and is not primarily informed by post-9/11 concerns. It
is largely descriptive and historical. Although it does make use of
interest-group theory at points, this work is not organized around any
specific social scientific theory-building agenda. George Michael
provides a detailed survey of right-wing extremist groups and their
activities (to include terrorism), as well as an account of the efforts
of both the government and a wide array of private interest groups to
resist and undermine their efforts. Perhaps most notable and
interesting are 20 interviews Michael conducted with actors on all
sides of this struggle (including William Pierce, chairman of the
neo-Nazi National Alliance, and author of the novel The Turner
Diaries, which served as a blueprint for McVeigh).