The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read -- great for students and teachers
Review: A "must read" for anyone trying to understand how home grown terrorists evolved. An excellent and well researched book that connects the dots between the banking collapse, the financial destruction of farmers, and the militants who took advantage of desperate times to sway people to their beliefs. An indictment of politicians at their worst, who, by ignoring a large segment of the population in their time of need, helped to spawn hate groups and a complete mistrust of the government. This is not a book "thrown together" in the aftermath of "9/11". It is painstakingly documented yet written in a style that demands and keeps your attention by an author who is obviously passionate about his work. READ THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: The Terrorist Next Door
Review: Book Review: The Terrorist Next Door; The Militia Movement
and the Radical Right by Danial Levitas the book is written
by a liberal jew but can't admite the the moslems where
repoonsible for 9-11 not White nationalists.The book is written with academic dishonesty and lacks professionalism. Grade: Poor

Rating:
Summary: A very thorough depiction of the militia movement, but...
Review: Examine the review by "dixiedivine", which shows a much surer understanding than the author of this book ever will that "hate" derives and grows from genuine issues. The author essentially attempts to link, lump AND BLAME: 1) rural residents who have seen their livelihoods destroyed by international free trade, corporatism, incredible rates of combined federal, state and local income, property and sales taxes (50%+ for the middle class) and government regulation; 2) strong Christians who still read in their Bibles that homosexuals should be put to death; 3) urban white men driven to near-madness by an inability to defend their women and children from crime in the streets and in the schools; 4) urban (and now suburban) families who cannot afford to send their kids to decent private schools; 5) people "full of hate" for being denied a job, college placement, or a scholarship because they were a member of the "privileged" white race, etc.

C'mon, folks! A little common sense! There are millions on the left who "hate" their government whenever it is lead by anyone other than a social program Democrat - aren't they as much "terrorists" as someone who mistrusts their government from a populist perspective? There are HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of Europeans that frankly "hate" the government of the U.S. Are they all terrorists? Wouldn't one admit that perhaps 20-25% of African-Americans despise their government's police forces? That's 5 million potential terrorists, I guess! And doesn't the mass media show a genuine contempt, i.e., hatred, for strongly assertive Christianity? Doesn't that make the media terroristic? I guess hatred of "those that hate" is fundamentally O.K. - if not a social good, and no one sees the inherent contradiction in it being "good" to hate the haters!

The utter and complete failure of the left (here represented by the author) to understand that not only the "right-wing haters" but TENS OF MILLIONS of their compatriots, sympathizers, empathizers, whatever you call them, regard: 1) excessive (by at least half!) taxation of the middle class; 2) much of popular culture as sold by the mass media; 3) court-mandated tolerance of "every diversity of perversity"; 4) essentially court-mandated inferior public schools, etc., to ALL represent terrorist acts committed on a daily basis against the American nuclear family...turns their analysis of our nation's future into pure drivel.

Rating:
Summary: An accurate look at some of your scary neighbors
Review: I have already read this book, but I'm ordering my own copy now for research purposes. It is the most comprehensive, and well written book on the subject of the extreme right that I have found to date. I live in an area where I am familiar with some of the activity that Levitas describes and he is bulls-eye accurate with his facts. He also writes in a way that is objective and compelling.

Rating:
Summary: Not much new, writing about a failed movement.
Review: Levitas' book is well written and documented but it doesn't contain much that is new. I've been reading about the radical right for almost 20 years now and there were no surprises here, only a rewritten version of what is in about 20 other books and reports. The subject has been exhausted and this book proves it.

Rating:
Summary: A very thorough depiction of the militia movement, but...
Review: The Terrorist Next Door is an invaluable resource for people who have been previously exposed to information about the militia movement. This is not a book for first-time readers who are curious about the domestic terrorist subculture. The Terrorist Next Door suffers somewhat by poor editing. When reading the book, I was under the impression that substantive parts were cut out of the manuscript. The book ends up being a series of case studies, but the writer does not discuss possible relationships between the case studies. For example, did the massacre at Rulo, Nebraska somehow influence the federal government's activities at Waco? Also, Levitas' discussion of the Arizona Patriots needs a great deal more elaboration, because -- as pointed out in other books about the Oklahoma City Bombing -- McVeigh and Fortier spent a great deal of time with this group. So again, is there a substantive relationship between the Arizona Patriots and the Oklahoma City Bombing? Despite the aforementioned editing difficulties and the lack of cohesion among case studies, The Terrorist Next Door provides excellent depictions of Gordon Kahl, Richard Wayne Snell, and the effects of the farm crisis. However, I would have preferred more information on McVeigh and The Order. In addition, a previous reviewer wrote that Levitas attempted to tie the militia movement to the Sept. 11 attacks, and therefore, accuses Levitas of academic dishonesty. This reviewer needs to reread the last chapter in the book. Levitas states that many members of the militia movement were exulted by the Sept. 11 attacks -- perhaps most notably, Billy Roper -- but the book does not suggest that the milita movement was responsibile for the World Trade Center attacks.