Rural Radicals: Righteous Rage in the American Grain PDF
Preview Rural Radicals: Righteous Rage in the American Grain
RURAL R ADICALS R URAL R ADICAL S Righteous Rage in the American Grain With a New Preface Catherine McNicol Stock Cornell University Press ithaca and london Copyright © 1996 by Cornell University New Preface copyright © 2017 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 1996 by Cornell University Press First paperback printing 2017 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stock, Catherine McNicol, author. Title: Rural radicals : righteous rage in the American grain / Catherine McNicol Stock ; with a new preface. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifi ers: LCCN 2017006687 (print) | LCCN 2017008096 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501714030 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501714054 (epub/ mobi) | ISBN 9781501714047 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Radicalism—United States—History. | Political violence— United States—History. | Farmers—United States—Political activity— History. | United States—Rural conditions. Classifi cation: LCC HN90.R3 S67 2017 (print) | LCC HN90.R3 (ebook) | DDC 303.48/40973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017006687 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fi bers. For further information, visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. For my mother and father Contents PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION ix NOTES TO THE PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION xxi PREFACE xxv INTRODUCTION: American Radicalism—Left, Right, and Rural 1 1. THE POLITICS OF PRODUCERISM 15 “Almost a habit of the country”: Rural Producer Radicalism on the British North American Frontier 17 “Come on, my brave boys . . . knock their grey wigs off”: Rural Producer Radicalism in the Revolutionary and Early National Eras 33 “A tongue of flame sat upon every man”: Rural Producer Radicalism in the Industrial Era 54 “Treat the banker like a chicken thief. Shoot him on sight”: Rural Producer Radicalism in the Age of Reform 71 2. THE CULTURE OF VIGILANTISM 87 “Industry was Restor’d”: Vigilantism and the Politics of Class 90 “For that they were all Enemies”: Vigilantism and the Politics of Race 109 “Shut up or get out”: Vigilantism and the Politics of Patriotism 133 3. RURAL RADICALS IN OUR TIME 143 “Let’s keep the grain and export the farmers”: The Failure of Rural Producer Radicalism in Postwar America 149 “Get violent, whitey”: The Triumph of Vigilantism in Postwar America 163 A NOTE ON METHOD 177 viii CONTENTS A NOTE ON SOURCES 183 NOTES 199 INDEX 211 Preface to the Paperback Edition TWO DECADES have passed since Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols detonated seven thousand pounds of explosive material outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than six hundred others. It is the event at the heart of this book. Since that time, nothing similar has happened in the United States. In other words, since April 19, 1995, no Ameri- can citizens have perpetrated a single event inspired by hatred for the government or fear of the rising power of people of color that has killed as many Americans on our soil. In fact, for a few years after the bombing and subsequent execution of McVeigh, the growth of antigovernment and other hate groups seemed to have slowed. Since 2008, however, the number of these groups has risen drastically—increasing, according to the Southern Poverty Law Cen- ter, by as much as 700 percent.1 Murders and attempted murders of gays, blacks, Latinos, Jews, Muslims, government officials, and police officers by members of white nationalist, citizen sovereign, or “patriot” organizations are far too numerous to list here. They include, nevertheless, the attempted bombing of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington, in 2011, the murders in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Center of Overland Park, Kansas, and the shooting spree by antigovernment extrem- ists in Las Vegas, Nevada, both in 2014. In 1995 I ended this book
The list of books you might like
