Bring the War Home

The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America

“A gripping study of white power…Explosive.” —New York Times
“Helps explain how we got to today’s alt-right.” —Terry Gross, Fresh Air
“A much-needed and troubling revelation… The power of Belew’s book comes, in part, from the fact that it reveals a story about white-racist violence that we should all already know.” —The Nation
A Guardian Best Book of the Year

by Kathleen Belew

The white power movement in America wants a revolution.

Returning to a country ripped apart by a war they felt they were not allowed to win, a small group of Vietnam veterans and disgruntled civilians who shared their virulent anti-communism and potent sense of betrayal concluded that waging war on their own country was justified. The command structure of their covert movement gave women a prominent place. They operated with discipline, made tragic headlines in Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Oklahoma City, and are resurgent under President Trump. Based on a decade of deep immersion in previously classified FBI files and on extensive interviews, Bring the War Home tells the story of American paramilitarism and the birth of the alt-right.

Paperback | 352 pages | Harvard University Press | 2019