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List of contents
Acknowledgments
1. The Challenges of Comprehending and Responding to Domestic Terrorism
2. An Ideological Typology of the Violent Far Right
3. Historical Pillars of the Violent American Far Right
4. Tactics of the American Far Right
5.The Rise and Decline of Far-Right Violence in the United States
6. Perpetrators of Far-Right Violence
7. Contemporary Discourse of the American Far Right
8. The Future of the Violent American Far Right
Appendix: Methodology and Statistical Results
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Arie Perliger is professor and director of the graduate program in security studies at the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. His many publications on political violence include Jewish Terrorism in Israel (Columbia, 2009).
Summary
In an unsettling time in American history, the outbreak of right-wing violence is among the most disturbing developments. In recent years, attacks originating from the far right of American politics have targeted religious and ethnic minorities, with a series of antigovernment militants, religious extremists, and lone-wolf mass shooters inspired by right-wing ideologies. The need to understand the nature and danger of far-right violence is greater than ever.
In American Zealots, Arie Perliger provides a wide-ranging and rigorously researched overview of right-wing domestic terrorism. He analyzes its historical roots, characteristics, tactics, rhetoric, and organization, assessing the current and future trajectory of the use of violence by the far right. Perliger draws on a comprehensive dataset of more than 5,000 attacks and their perpetrators from 1990 through 2017 in order to explore key trends in American right-wing terrorism. He describes the entire ideological spectrum of the American far right, including today’s white supremacists, antigovernment groups, and antiabortion fundamentalists, as well as the histories of the KKK, skinheads, and neo-Nazis. Based on these findings, Perliger suggests counterterrorism policies that can respond effectively to the far-right threat. A groundbreaking examination of violence spawned from right-wing ideologies, American Zealots is essential reading for everyone seeking to understand the transformation of domestic terrorism.
Additional text
This book illuminates the threat of the far-right in an accessible, non-jargony way and Perliger’s introduction to the topic may encourage readers to become more informed about some of the complexities and nuances of the far-right...a multifaceted analysis.
