Episode 39: Matt Shea and White Supremacy in the Pacific North West (with Jason Wilson)

To round off our first year, Daniel is joined by special guest Jason Wilson to talk about the fascinating figure Representative Matt Shea.  Hopefully this edition will please those listeners who've been asking for longer episodes!

Content Warning.

Notes and links (thanks to Jason for this compilation):

Kenneth S Stern (1997) A force upon the plain : the American militia movement and the politics of hate. https://www.worldcat.org/title/force-upon-the-plain-the-american-militia-movement-and-the-politics-of-hate/oclc/1002393469&referer=brief_results

Kathleen Belew (2019) Bring the war home the white power movement and paramilitary America https://www.worldcat.org/title/bring-the-war-home-the-white-power-movement-and-paramilitary-america/oclc/1129866369&referer=brief_results (great overview and analysis of lots of things we discussed)

Linda Gordon (2018) The second coming of the KKK : the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American political tradition https://www.worldcat.org/title/second-coming-of-the-kkk-the-ku-klux-klan-of-the-1920s-and-the-american-political-tradition/oclc/1076323469&referer=brief_results (really good material on the 1920s Klan in Oregon) 

Jane Kramer (2003) Lone patriot : the short career of an American militiaman. https://www.worldcat.org/title/lone-patriot-the-short-career-of-an-american-militiaman/oclc/52724431?referer=br&ht=edition

David A Neiwert (1999) In God's country : the patriot movement and the Pacific Northwest https://www.worldcat.org/title/in-gods-country-the-patriot-movement-and-the-pacific-northwest/oclc/493949695&referer=brief_results (Exhaustively detailed contemporaneous work on the militia movement in PNW)

David Neiwert (2009) The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right https://www.worldcat.org/title/the-eliminationists-how-hate-talk-radicalized-the-american-right/oclc/7390575626&referer=brief_results (This speaks to the right generally but is important for our context)

David Neiwert (2018) Alt-America : the rise of the radical right in the age of Trump https://www.worldcat.org/title/alt-america-the-rise-of-the-radical-right-in-the-age-of-trump/oclc/1017576651?referer=br&ht=edition (Best view of the current moment from long time PNW reporter)

David Helvarg (2004) The war against the greens : the "Wise-Use" movement, the New Right, and the browning of America https://www.worldcat.org/title/war-against-the-greens-the-wise-use-movement-the-new-right-and-the-browning-of-america/oclc/53993117&referer=brief_results (Specific account of the development of anti-environmental politics in the west)

Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds (2011) Drawing the global colour line : white men's countries and the international challenge of racial equality https://www.worldcat.org/title/drawing-the-global-colour-line-white-mens-countries-and-the-international-challenge-of-racial-equality/oclc/1052849084&referer=brief_results (Just brilliant in historicizing the development of white supremacy - in thought and policy - across settler colonial societies around the turn of the twentieth century. Pankaj Mishra draws on it here https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/opinion/race-politics-whiteness.html) 

Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons (2000) Right-wing populism in America : too close for comfort https://www.worldcat.org/title/right-wing-populism-in-america-too-close-for-comfort/oclc/247742295?referer=br&ht=edition (Chip and Matthew have done lots of fantastic work but this is essential)

James Corcoran (1991) Bitter harvest Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus : murder in the heartland https://www.worldcat.org/title/bitter-harvest-gordon-kahl-and-the-posse-comitatus-murder-in-the-heartland/oclc/1087601191&referer=brief_results

Mark Fenster (2008) Conspiracy theories: secrecy and power in American culture. https://www.worldcat.org/title/conspiracy-theories-secrecy-and-power-in-american-culture/oclc/1087739570?referer=br&ht=edition (Chapter 2 has a good discussion of the 1995 congressional hearings on the militia movement) 

James Coates (1995) Armed and dangerous : the rise of the survivalist right https://www.worldcat.org/title/conspiracy-theories-secrecy-and-power-in-american-culture/oclc/1087739570?referer=br&ht=edition (Pretty good contemporaneous account of the different strands underpinning the militia movement and the 1990s far right)

Elinor Langer (2004) A hundred little Hitlers : the death of a black man, the trial of a white racist, and the rise of the neo-Nazi movement in America https://www.worldcat.org/title/hundred-little-hitlers-the-death-of-a-black-man-the-trial-of-a-white-racist-and-the-rise-of-the-neo-nazi-movement-in-america/oclc/1037466174&referer=brief_results (Important account of white supremacist movements in PNW in 1980s and 1990s) 

Leonard Zeskind (2009) Blood and politics : the history of the white nationalist movement from the margins to the mainstream https://www.worldcat.org/title/blood-and-politics-the-history-of-the-white-nationalist-movement-from-the-margins-to-the-mainstream/oclc/965823835?referer=br&ht=edition

Leah Sottile (with Ryan Haas on the podcasts) Bundyville https://longreads.com/bundyville/ (Definitive journalistic take on Matt Shea’s place in the contemporary patriot movement in PNW)

Daniel Levitas (2001) The Terrorist Next Door The Militia Movement and the Radical Right. https://www.worldcat.org/title/terrorist-next-door-the-militia-movement-and-the-radical-right/oclc/229019637?referer=br&ht=edition

James A. Aho (1995) The politics of righteousness : Idaho Christian patriotism https://www.worldcat.org/title/politics-of-righteousness-idaho-christian-patriotism/oclc/931074407?referer=br&ht=edition (Incredible, now-underread contemporaneous sociological work on the 1990s far right in Idaho, including Richard Butler/Aryan Nations)

Daniel HoSang and Joseph Lowndes (2019) Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity https://www.worldcat.org/title/producers-parasites-patriots-race-and-the-new-right-wing-politics-of-precarity/oclc/1090989510&referer=brief_results (Very good current scholarship, great analysis of patriot movement and some direct analysis of Joey Gibson/Patriot Prayer) 

Michael Barkun (2004) Religion and the racist right : the origins of the Christian identity movement https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=wikipedia&q=isbn%3A080782328

Other stuff:

Me on Ruby Ridge: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/26/ruby-ridge-1992-modern-american-militia-charlottesville

Me on the local context of Malheur: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/14/oregon-militia-occupation-revolt-motivation-politics-public-land-ranching-environment

And here is the link to an upload of John Trochmann’s Blue Book https://docdro.id/BZnxAiI