Shocking acts of terrorism have erupted from violent American far-right extremists in recent years, including the 2015 mass murder at a historic Black church in Charleston and the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. These incidents, however, are neither new nor unprecedented. They are the latest flashpoints in a process that has been unfolding for decades, in which vast conspiracy theories and radical ideologies such as white supremacism, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and hostility to government converge into a deadly threat to democracy.
God, Guns, and Sedition is the definitive account of the rise of far-right terrorism in the United States-and how to counter it. Leading experts Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware trace the historical trajectory and assess the present-day dangers of this violent extremist movement. They combine authoritative, nuanced analysis with gripping storytelling and portraits of the key leaders of the American far right and their followers. Hoffman and Ware highlight developments including the use of cutting-edge communications technology; the embrace of leaderless resistance or lone wolf strategies; the emergence of characteristic tactics and targets; infiltration and recruitment in the military and law enforcement; and the far right's intricate relationship with mainstream politics. An unparalleled examination of one of today's great perils, God, Guns, and Sedition offers practical recommendations to halt the growth of the far right and address the terrorist threat.
Shocking acts of terrorism have erupted from violent American far-right extremists in recent years, including the 2015 mass murder at a historic Black church in Charleston and the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. These incidents, however, are neither new nor unprecedented. They are the latest flashpoints in a process that has been unfolding for decades, in which vast conspiracy theories and radical ideologies such as white supremacism, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and hostility to government converge into a deadly threat to democracy.
God, Guns, and Sedition is the definitive account of the rise of far-right terrorism in the United States-and how to counter it. Leading experts Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware trace the historical trajectory and assess the present-day dangers of this violent extremist movement. They combine authoritative, nuanced analysis with gripping storytelling and portraits of the key leaders of the American far right and their followers. Hoffman and Ware highlight developments including the use of cutting-edge communications technology; the embrace of leaderless resistance or lone wolf strategies; the emergence of characteristic tactics and targets; infiltration and recruitment in the military and law enforcement; and the far right's intricate relationship with mainstream politics. An unparalleled examination of one of today's great perils, God, Guns, and Sedition offers practical recommendations to halt the growth of the far right and address the terrorist threat.
Preface
1. Accelerationism Reborn
2. Battle Plan
3. Race War
4. Armed and Dangerous
5. Leaderless Resistance
6. Racism Rekindled
7. The Movement Goes Global
8. American Carnage
9. Countering Far-Right Terrorism
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Bruce Hoffman is the Shelby Cullom and Kathryn W. Davis Senior
Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security at the Council on
Foreign Relations. He is also a professor at Georgetown
University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service; professor emeritus of
terrorism studies at the University of St Andrews; and the George
H. Gilmore Senior Fellow at the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating
Terrorism Center. His Columbia University Press books include
Inside Terrorism (third edition, 2017).
Jacob Ware is a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of
Foreign Service and at DeSales University. He serves on the
editorial boards for the academic journal Studies in Conflict &
Terrorism and the Irregular Warfare Initiative at the Modern War
Institute at West Point.
Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware rightly situate contemporary far-right
growth within its long historical context while deftly analyzing
today’s unique challenges. A vital addition to the global
understanding of supremacist terror and what we might do to turn
the tide, and indispensable reading for anyone seeking to
understand what is demonstrably the most pressing threat to
democracy and social cohesion.
*Cynthia Miller-Idriss, author of Hate in the Homeland: The New
Global Far Right*
Hoffman and Ware have produced a revealing history of America’s
almost uninterrupted experience with domestic terrorism, from the
Ku Klux Klan to the January 6 assault on the Capitol. This is an
essential volume for understanding the dark side of the American
dream and comes with an urgent call to reverse the drift toward
violence and disunity.
*Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the
Road to 9/11*
At a pivotal moment in American history, Bruce Hoffman and Jacob
Ware have given Americans of all stripes a vital guide to the
dangers pervading our politics and especially the risk of
internecine violence. Few if any other scholars could approach this
freighted topic with the historical perspective, disciplinary
breadth, and methodological rigor as do Hoffman and Ware. Their
writing, moreover, is brisk and stylish, all the better to reach
the wide audience this urgently needed book deserves.
*Steven Simon, author of Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of
American Ambition in the Middle East*
Gods, Guns, and Sedition offers a timely and comprehensive
assessment of the evolution of far-right extremism in the United
States. Hoffman and Ware identify and analyze the most important
trends affecting the far right, uncovering a phenomenon with deep
roots, poised to remain a major threat to the security of the
country.
*Ali H. Soufan, author of Anatomy of Terror: From the Death of
bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State*
Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware have delivered a crisply written and
deeply researched account of the history of far-right terrorism in
the United States that will be of great interest both to
specialists and general readers.
*Peter Bergen, author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin
Laden*
Connecting Turner to January 6 so explicitly, as Hoffman and Ware
do, amounts to nothing short of a new grand narrative of the
contemporary far right.
*Salus Journal*
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