Highlighting a breadth of American individuals and groups that engaged in extremist behavior across history, this book provides a succinct, concise overview of extremist behavior in the past and examines today’s increasingly common incidences of hate and extremism.

Since the election of Barack Obama in 2008, extremist and hate groups have seen a resurgence on the American political landscape. Members of these subgroups within the American population have become concerned that the America that they have always known is fading into oblivion, with a majority of individuals in these groups holding fiercely anti-immigration views and adhering to the belief that the United States should not admit large numbers of any group that is not white, Christian, or predominantly European. Others believe that the principles and precepts of the U.S. Constitution have gone by the wayside and that drastic measures are required to protect the underlying tenets that were the essential elements of the Constitution and many of their nation’s founding principles. How did these individuals come to feel this way, is it possible to bring these impassioned extremists back into the fold, and if so, how?

This book provides comprehensive, illuminating, and sometimes disturbing insights into the individuals, groups, and events that have illustrated extremist behavior in post-World War II America. Ranging from the anti-communist rhetoric and activities of the John Birch Society, to the radical socialist ideals of the Black Panthers, to the goals of a pure America articulated by white nationalists, this book documents the various extremist elements that shaped the second half of the 20th century as well as the first two decades of the 21st century. Readers will grasp how events in the histories of individuals and groups as well as perceived injustices have lead to the incidences of hate and extremism in American society. The encyclopedic entries of the book are specifically written to accessible to readers without specific knowledge of extremism, political science, or sociology.

Helps readers to understand the growing reaction against liberal political policies in the United States

Provides insight into the motivations of individuals and groups that insist that the character and culture of the United States has been fundamentally changed by unchecked immigration policies that are, even now, damaging the United States

Highlights major extremist events that illustrate extremist ideologies in action

Acknowledges and documents the origins of the anger felt by many extremists that they are being left behind in modern America