Customer Reviews

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

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1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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

I bought this book because I had heard that I was written up in it. Sure enough, there were two different places that I came up in the book. In both places I was "quoted" with no source to back up the "quote" and all the quotes were total fabrication by either the author or whomever the author used for his "source". I was NEVER the head of an un-organized or organized militia in Stevens County, and the only presentation that I did at the Colville Grange was an invocation. Apparently SOMEONE who is pretty liberal is trying to make folks in the public believe something that just is not so. And then of course there is the author who OBVIOUSLY has a bone to pick with anyone who doesn't go along with the status quo of statism and ra ra ra the government loves us retoric that is being shoved down our throats. Too bad some of the "quotes" that were attributed to me, didn't actually happen!

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?

This is a survey of some rather insignificant groups of social misfits we sometimes call "hate groups", but they are not militias, and don't even call themselves militias. This book is not about the militia movement at all. None of the people in the real militia movement are mentioned. The author is just trying to discredit the term "militia" by applying it to the wrong objects. I am personally acquainted with most of the leaders in the real militia movement, which is entirely different from the racist/separatist movement. Indeed, the two movements are hostile to one another, agreeing on opposition to gun control but not about much else. A disinformation piece

Kenneth Stern does an exceptional job describing the facts surrounding the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents, and how the attitudes generated from those incidents fueled the militia movement. However, Stern quickly lost credibility in my eyes by injecting little tongue-in-cheek jabs and sarcastic remarks about militia ideology (paranoid as they may be). Opinion is expected in some research works, but Stern needs to learn the difference between academic opinion and newspaper style editorial zingers.

this book is total and utter trash. not even worth ripping out the pages and burning to keep yourself warm. Very poorly written so it is a chore to sit through the whole thing including all of the hate-filled rhetoric. I have to assume some militia guy cut him off in traffic and he got really pissed off or so it seems from reading this heap of poop.

For all his lies about militias being angry white bigots hiding behind every bush to do every evil he seems to of forgotten about all the BLACK militiamen out there.

And guess what. Kenneth Stern writes these books and has his hand out looking for money to protect you from these militiamen who are your brothers, fathers, friends and family. OF ALL COLORS AND RACES KENNETH STERN! GET IT?

Anyone who understands anything about the militia movement in america first knows that the american militia is not limited to a bunch of white hicks living in the woods. The american militia represents over 80 million lawfully armed citizens from every walk of life. For once Id like to see a completed work on the diversity and common purpose of this group as a whole and not such writings as this which is a feeble attempt to play upon the fears of people and make a buck in the process.

A prime example of neo-McCarthyism. Condemns themilitia movement through guilt by association.Libelously accuses militia leader Samuel Sherwood of incitement to violence with a false quotation. Book concludes with a recommendation for the Federal government to outlaw militias and suppress them, even at the expected cost of "more Waco's". The anti-militia movement now has it's own "The Turner Diaries" thanks to Stern.