Militia minds: Inside America's contemporary militia movement

Timothy Michael Seul, Purdue University

Abstract

This work explores the contemporary militia movement in America. The exploration focuses on militia ideologies from both a general and individual framework. The militia movement is explored in order to gain insight into what constitutes militia ideologies regardless of differing stances among individual militia members. Next, a detailed look at individual militia members has been undertaken so as to identify variations in a "movement" that both members and critics would like to project as being more unified than it actually is. These individuals have been placed into two categories marking their varying levels of investment into militia ideologies. The categories are the Patriotic Liberal and the Patriotic Reconstructionist. The result of the above combination of qualitative research methodologies is an in-depth look at, an analysis of, the militia movement from primary sources--from those who actually constitute the militia movement through membership in a militia or through contributions to militia literature. Finally, because the project was written with a sensitivity to intensified ideological times in the 1990s, it includes a theoretical analysis of ideology which explores its implications beyond the militia movement itself.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Weinstein, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Political science|Sociology|Social structure

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