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

Kenneth S. Stern (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1996

A noted expert on hate groups offers a detailed history of America's right-wing paramilitary movement, examining the connections between such groups as the Ku Klux Klan and the Order and the Oklahoma City bombing. 35,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The violent, horrific events that plagued Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Oklahoma City thrust subversive militia under the public microscope, exposing the growing feeling of mistrust that has caused some to take up arms against the government. The more extreme among these anti-government "patriots" are examined in A Force upon the Plain, as Kenneth Stern keenly focuses on the growing influence and anger of the paramilitary movement. Stern investigates the reasons some are compelled to join, delivering objective and insightful analyses that eschew media hype and the misconceptions that characterize much coverage of modern militia.

From Publishers Weekly

Stern (Holocaust Denial) issues a wake-up call regarding the growing paramilitary movement, which, he estimates, has a membership of between 10,000 and 40,000, largely in states west of the Mississippi. Most of these militia members (principally men) are armed, view the federal government as the enemy of the people and feel that civil war is not only possible but justifiable. Stern cites evidence that, in addition to paranoid, these people are often racist, anti-Semitic, anti-environmentalist and anti-gun control. With the collapse of the Soviet regime, he points out, the most easily defined target of hatred disappeared, and has now been replaced by the U.N. and the federal government. Stern warns that the paramilitary groups should not be dismissed but recognized as a genuine threat, as the Oklahoma City bombing dramatized. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (January 10, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684819163
• ISBN-13: 978-0684819167
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,341,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay if you want a particular slant on understanding, October 5, 2000

By 

Jeff M. Chambers "jchambers1" (Lincoln, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate (Paperback)

Stern's book does in journalistic fashion detail some of the "events" that have occured recently related to this fuzzy group known as the militia. However I would agree with most other reviewers here that this work proceeds from the desire to further alienate the already alienated and offers little in the way of allowing the reader to understand this phenomena. I'd recommend Dyer's Harvest of Rage for an understanding of this issue.

2.0 out of 5 stars biased, March 2, 2011

By 

R. C. dare "The people have the right to defe... (Centralia WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate (Hardcover)

A decent read. But i have to say this is a biased book. I am personally involved with the Militia Movement here in Wa state and I have to say Stern does damage the militia outlokk and image. He doesnt quite understand why people join a milita and the whole ideology behind it. Just because someone supports limited government, legaliazation of drugs and pro gun doesnt make them unamerican or domestic terrorists. True some may have been a part of a milita and done harm to the public but that is them personally not the grou pthey affiliate with. Perception is key here. This is a decent read from a certain viewpoint. none the less biased.

please stern reevaluate what the militia is and why people join them before saying they are racists.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a reliable source of information on the militias., June 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate (Hardcover)

I'm sorry, but this book is nothing short of a smear job. Everyone is well aware of the fact that some modest portion of the militia movement is allied with racist or Nazi viewpoints. Stern, unfortunately, seems intent on practicing a sort of leftist McCarthyism in which he sees all opponents of the government as inherently racist, neo-Nazi, proto-skinhead thugs. This book is raw sensationalism at its worst. Stern's attempts to equate hatred of the government with hatred of groups of people such as Blacks or Jews is simply incredible. The idea that a person who places an anti-IRS bumpersticker on their car is the same as a person who gets a swastika tatoo, which frequently seems to be Stern's thesis, is ludicrous