Patriots, Politics, and the Oklahoma City Bombing

Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-0-521-69419-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 254 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 421 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics

This book explores new ground in social movements by analyzing an escalating spiral of tension between the Patriot movement and the state centered on the mutual framing of conflict as 'warfare'. By examining the social construction of 'warfare' as a principal script or frame defining the movement-state dynamic, Stuart A. Wright explains how this highly charged confluence of a war narrative engendered a kind of symbiosis leading to the escalation of a mutual threat that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. Wright offers a unique perspective on the events leading up to the bombing because he served as a consultant to Timothy McVeigh's defense team for eighteen months and draws on primary data based on face-to-face interviews with McVeigh. The book contends that McVeigh was firmly entrenched in the Patriot movement and was part of a network of 'warrior cells' that planned and implemented the bombing.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wright, Stuart A.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Nationalismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt Terrorismus, Religiöser Fundamentalismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Codicil to a Patriot profile; 2. Patriots, political process, and social movements; 3. Historical context of Patriot insurgency; 4. The farm crisis, threat attribution, and Patriot mobilization; 5. State mobilization: building the trajectory of contention; 6. The gun rights network and nascent Patriots: rise of a threat spiral; 7. Movement-state attributions of war: Ruby Ridge and Waco; 8. Patriot insurgency and the Oklahoma City bombing; 9. Patriot movement demobilization and decline.

Über Autor(innen)

Wright, Stuart A.
Stuart A. Wright is the Assistant Dean for the College of Graduate Studies & Research and a Professor of Sociology at Lamar University. Dr Wright received his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 1983. He is the author of Leaving Cults: The Dynamics of Defection and editor of Armageddon in Waco. He has published more than thirty articles or book chapters in scholarly venues and has become a widely recognized expert and legal consultant. Dr Wright worked with U.S. Congressional subcommittees in 1995 investigating the government's role in the Waco siege and testified in House hearings. Following the highly publicized hearings, he was retained as a consultant by defense attorneys in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh. Dr Wright has received numerous grants and research awards.