The Homesteading Movement, The Vietnam War, & The White Supremacy Movement

The Vietnam War gave birth to a new generation of veterans, ones who came back from war feeling abandoned by their government and by their fellow civilians. Unlike prior wars, the enemies were largely non-white and the terrain of war was entirely different. Guerrilla war and traps created the conditions of dehumanization that bled racism into anti-communism. Upon returning home, many found themselves disgusted by the United States government and found the country they returned to much different than the country they had left, as progressive policies had taken hold through the late years of the 60s and early 70s. We highlighted this with the rise of the Back to the Land movement, and how the countercultural revolution fed into new visions of the future.

Many point to the startling rise in white supremacy in the late 20th century to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. As narrated by white power proponents, the Vietnam War was a story of constant danger, gore, and horror. It was also a story of soldiers’ betrayal by military and political leaders and of the trivialization of their sacrifice. This narrative increased paramilitarism and separationism through homesteading and communes within the movement. In his speeches, newsletters, and influential 1983 collection Essays of a Klansman, movement leader Louis Beam urged activists to continue fighting the Vietnam War on American soil. When he told readers to “bring it on home,” he meant a literal extension of military-style combat into civilian space. He referred to two wars: the one he had fought in Vietnam and the white revolution he hoped to wage in the United States.

In this episode, we explore how the politics of the 1960s and 70s drove the homesteader movement and shifted the focus of growing food as a means of resistance and purity. How did this movement shape homesteading, and how prominent was it?

To read about this movement further, check out the following substack for sources and further details:

https://poorprolesalmanac.substack.com/p/homesteading-and-white-supremacy

This episode is sponsored by: Eric Toensmeier at https://www.perennialsolutions.org/

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