Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe: Political Extremism in America is a 1992 book by John George and Laird Wilcox

Laird Wilcox

Laird M. Wilcox is an American researcher specializing in the study of political fringe movements. He is the founder of the "Wilcox Collection on Contemporary Political Movements," said to be one of the largest collections of American political material in the United States. It is housed in the...

. It is an examination of political extremism

Extremism

Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...

 of both the far left

Far left

Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

 and far right

Far right

Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

The authors attempt to summarize the pre-1960 historical background of American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 extremist movements, discuss conspiracy theories and their validity, offer their insight on what motivates extremists, and discuss a number of contemporary groups on the "far left

Far left

Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

" and "far right

Far right

Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

" based principally on their personal contacts with approximately six hundred individual extremists and the extremists' own writings.

It was published by Prometheus Books

Prometheus Books

Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co-founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is currently the chairman of all three organizations. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, including many...

 (Buffalo, New York) in 1992 as a 523-page hardcover (ISBN 0-87975-680-2). In 1996, Prometheus Books (Amherst, New York) republished it as American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists and Others in a 443-page paperback (ISBN 1-57392-058-4).

Overview

The authors give the history of their personal interest in political extremism. Recognizing their fallibility, and inability to claim "anything approaching complete objectivity

Objectivity (science)

Objectivity in science is a value that informs how science is practiced and how scientific truths are created. It is the idea that scientists, in attempting to uncover truths about the natural world, must aspire to eliminate personal biases, a priori commitments, emotional involvement, etc...

", the authors attempted to "make an honest and diligent attempt to be fair and even-handed in our treatment of this subject." Distinguishing this book from the many covering "extremism" or "extremists" on the market (with their own agenda "to provide a rationale for persecuting or doing away with certain 'extremists'"), the authors' goal was "to provide understanding of a human problem, not a basis for one more round of persecutions." The authors propose a definition of "extremism" based on "the behavioral model" ("defined in terms of certain behaviors, particularly behavior toward other human beings"), passing up the "normative or "statistical" way" (framing the spectrum on a linear scale, a "bell curve

Bell curve

Bell curve can refer to:* A Gaussian function, a specific kind of function whose graph is a bell-shaped curve* Normal distribution, whose density function is a Gaussian function...

") and the "popularity contest" theory ("social definition agreed upon by collective fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

"). The authors describe their position on the political spectrum

Political spectrum

A political spectrum is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions....

 as "a bit difficult to pin down"; they "might be most accurately described as pragmatist

Pragmatist

Pragmatist may refer to:*A person who subscribes to pragmatism, a field of philosophy*A person who subscribes to pragmaticism, Charles Sanders Peirce's post-1905 branch of philosophy...

s with libertarian

Libertarianism

Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

 tendencies."

Organization

• Preface
• Part I. Background, Characteristics, Motivations, and Other Considerations

  Chapter 1. It's Not New: Historical Perspective on American Extremism Prior to 1960

  Chapter 2. What Is Extremism? Style and Tactics Matter More Than Goals

  Chapter 3. Extremists and the Constitution

  United States Constitution

  The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

  
  

  Chapter 4. Motivations: Why They Join, Stay, Leave

• Part II. The Far Left

  Chapter 5. Communist Party USA

  Communist Party USA

  The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....

  
  

  Chapter 6. Socialist Workers Party

  Socialist Workers Party (United States)

  The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...

  
  

  Chapter 7. Spartacist League

  International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)

  The International Communist League , earlier known as the international Spartacist tendency is a Trotskyist international. Its largest constituent party is the Spartacist League...

  
  

  Chapter 8. Workers League

  Socialist Equality Party (US)

  The Socialist Equality Party is a Trotskyist political party in the United States, one of several Socialist Equality Parties around the world affiliated to the International Committee of the Fourth International . The ICFI publishes daily news articles, perspectives and commentaries on the World...

  
  

  Chapter 9. Guardian

  Chapter 10. Black Panther Party

  Black Panther Party

  The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....

  
  

  Chapter 11. Students for a Democratic Society

  Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)

  Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...

  
  

  Chapter 12. Progressive Labor Party

  Chapter 13. Workers World Party

  Workers World Party

  Workers World Party is a far-left political party in the United States, founded in 1959 by a group led by Sam Marcy. Marcy and his followers split from the Socialist Workers Party in 1958 over a series of long-standing differences, among them Marcy's group's support for Henry A...

  
  

  Chapter 14. Communist Party USA (Marxist-Leninist)

  Communist Party USA (Marxist-Leninist)

  The Communist Party USA was a small Maoist political party in the United States. It was founded in 1965 by members of the Communist Party USA around Michael Laski who took the side of China in the Sino-Soviet split...

  
  

  Chapter 15. Revolutionary Action Movement

  Chapter 16. Revolutionary Communist Party

  Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

  The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA , known originally as the Revolutionary Union, is a Maoist Communist party formed in 1975 in the United States. The RCP states that U.S...

  
  

  Chapter 17. Communist Workers Party

  Communist Workers Party (U.S.)

  The Communist Workers' Party was a Maoist group in the United States. It had its origin in 1973 as the Asian Study Group established by Jerry Tung, a former member of the Progressive Labor Party who had grown disenchanted with the group and disagreed with its...

  
  

  Chapter 18. All African People's Revolutionary Party

  Chapter 19. Marxist-Leninist Party, USA

  Marxist-Leninist Party, USA

  The Marxist–Leninist Party was the final incarnation of a series of communist anti-revisionist groups that began in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s.- History :...

  
  

• Part III. The Far Right

  Chapter 20. Reverend Billy James Hargis

  Billy James Hargis

  Billy James Hargis was a fundamentalist Protestant Christian evangelist. At the height of his popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, his Christian Crusade ministry was broadcast on more than 500 radio stations and 250 television stations...

  
   and his Christian Crusade

  Chapter 21. The John Birch Society: A Plot to Sell Books?

  Chapter 22. The Dan Smoot

  Dan Smoot

  Howard Drummond Smoot , better known as Dan Smoot, was an FBI agent and a conservative political activist...

  
   Report

  Chapter 23. "Life Line"

  Chapter 24. The Church League of America

  Chapter 25. The Christian Right

  Christian right

  Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...

  
  

  Chapter 26. Willis Carto

  Willis Carto

  Willis Allison Carto is a longtime figure on the American far right. He describes himself as Jeffersonian and populist, but is primarily known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.-Influences on Carto:...

  
   and Liberty Lobby

  Liberty Lobby

  Liberty Lobby was an American political advocacy organization founded in 1958 that went bankrupt in 2001. It was founded by Willis Carto. In their own words,-Antisemitic world-view:...

  
  

  Chapter 27. The Citizens' Councils of America

  White Citizens' Council

  The White Citizens' Council was an American white supremacist organization formed on July 11, 1954. After 1956, it was known as the Citizens' Councils of America...

  
   and The Councilor

  Chapter 28. Robert Bolivar DePugh and the Minutemen

  Minutemen

  Minutemen were members of teams of select men from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. They provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to war threats, hence the name.The minutemen were among the first...

  
  

  Chapter 29. Common Sense

  Chapter 30. Gerald L.K. Smith and Christian Nationalist Crusade

  Christian Nationalist Crusade

  Christian Nationalist Crusade was an antisemitic organization which operated out of P.O. Box D-4, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Its founder was Gerald L. K. Smith. It sold and distributed, inter alia, The International Jew, and subscribed to the antisemitic views embodied in the Protocols of the Elders...

  
  

  Chapter 31. The LaRouche

  LaRouche

  LaRouche may refer to:*Justin LaRouche, Canadian hockey player*Lyndon LaRouche, an American political figure**The overall LaRouche movement, an international political and cultural movement...

  
   Network

  Chapter 32. Jewish Defense League

  Jewish Defense League

  The Jewish Defense League is a Jewish organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"...

  
  

  Chapter 33. The Nation of Islam

  Nation of Islam

  The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...

  
  

  Chapter 34. Assorted Neo-Nazis

• National Renaissance Party
  National Renaissance Party
  National Renaissance Party was an American neo-fascist group led by James Hartung Madole. It was frequently in the headlines during the 1960s and 1970s for its involvement in violent protests and riots in New York City....
  
  
• American Nazi Party
  American Nazi Party
  The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
  
  
• National Socialist Party of America
  National Socialist Party of America
  The National Socialist Party of America was a Chicago-based organization founded in 1970 by Frank Collin shortly after he left the National Socialist White People's Party. The NSWPP had been the American Nazi Party until shortly after the assassination of leader George Lincoln Rockwell in 1967...
  
  
• Neo-Nazi splinters and sects like

• America First Committee
  America First Committee
  The America First Committee was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. Peaking at 800,000 members, it was likely the largest anti-war organization in American history. Started in 1940, it became defunct after the attack on Pearl Harbor in...
  
  
• American White Nationalist Party
• Euro-American Alliance
• National Alliance
• National Democratic Front
  National Democratic Front
  National Democratic Front may refer to:*National Democratic Front *National Democratic Front *National Democratic Front *National Democratic Front *National Democratic Front *National Democratic Front...
  
  
• National Socialist League/World Service
• National Socialist Liberation Front
• National Socialist Movement
  National Socialist Movement (United States)
  The National Socialist Movement is a neo-Nazi party operating in the United States. The group was founded in 1974 by Robert Brannen, former member of the American Nazi Party before its decline. The group claims to be the largest and most active neo-Nazi organization in the United States. Its...
  
  
• National Socialist Vanguard
  National Socialist Vanguard
  The National Socialist Vanguard is a Neo-Nazi group based in The Dalles, Oregon.It has focused its efforts on recruiting high school students....
  
  
• National Socialist White America Party
• NSDAP/AO
  NSDAP/AO
  The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party . AO is the abbreviation of the German compound word Auslands-Organisation...
  
  
• National Socialist White Workers Party
• the Social Nationalist Aryan Peoples Party
• SS Action Group,
• United White Peoples Party

• major groups of the 1980s like Aryan Nations
  Aryan Nations
  Aryan Nations is a white supremacist religious organization originally based in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Richard Girnt Butler founded the group in the 1970s, as an arm of the Christian Identity organization Church of Jesus Christ–Christian...
  
  

• The Mountain Church of Jesus Christ
• The Order
  The Order (group)
  The Order, also known as the Brüder Schweigen or Silent Brotherhood, was an organization active in the United States between 1983 and 1984...
  
  
• Posse Comitatus
  Posse Comitatus (U.S. movement)
  The Posse Comitatus is a loosely organized far right social movement that opposes the United States federal government and believes in localism...
  
  
• White Aryan Resistance
  White Aryan Resistance
  White Aryan Resistance is a neo-Nazi white separatist organization founded and led by former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger. Part of the American far right, it is based in Warsaw, Indiana and is incorporated as a business....
  
  

Chapter 35. The National States' Rights Party

National States' Rights Party

National States' Rights Party was a far right, white supremacist party that briefly played a minor role in the politics of the United States.-Foundation:...

Chapter 36. National Christian Publishers

Chapter 37. Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

s

• Appendix I. Fake Quotes and Fabricated Documents: A Common Extremist Tactic
• Appendix II. Principal Characteristics of the Extremes and the Mainstream in America: A Handy Guide for Extremist Watchers
• Index

External links

• American Extremists at the publisher's website.
• American Extremists at Questia.com.
• America's Homegrown Extremists - slideshow by Life magazine