In an era of increasing “lone wolf” terrorism, it is important to be reminded of the larger world of radicalized movements from which it often, but not always, emerges. Extremism in America, edited by George Michael, takes up this timely issue with a survey of various extremist movements. Such groups are of growing interest to students and scholars, and readers of this journal will note that over half of the chapters focus on religious movements, or those with a heavy theological influence. In general, each chapter focuses on a particular group (the New Black Panther Party, for example), and then provides a wealth of historical background, especially well-suited to those new to the field, such as beginning or intermediate-level students. All of this suggests the volume could be useful in appropriate college classrooms, or for the scholar moving into this diverse field.

The book, however, does suffer from a number of shortcomings, including many of the usual problems found in edited collections: uneven and often unconnected chapters, odd inclusions, and even more surprising exclusions (the KKK, for instance, is barely discussed). Connecting the various chapters — each submitted by a different expert — and perhaps filling in some gaps are usually the tasks of the editor, but the introduction and even the conclusion here do little of this synthetic work. And since Christopher Hewitt's “Historical Overview” chapter is (to this reader's mind, inexplicably) left until the end, students will likely have trouble tying together the various movements described in the book. What's more, while the book is meant to put the extremist groups “in context” (7), that setting is almost uniformly understood to be each movement's individual context; the broader view of the last several decades of American extremism is rarely engaged. Comparisons with European extremism, for example, rather than undermining the “American” focus, could have served to highlight distinctively American themes or trends. Indeed, for all its descriptive background, the book includes almost no analytic effort to identify patterns, and the brief efforts in this direction come up relatively late in book (e.g., 206, 218–219).

A welcome exception to this oversight is Hewitt's abovementioned “Overview,” which does try to identify patterns in the use of terrorism by various extremist groups by marking the ebb and flow of extremist violence. Interestingly, his data undermine the view that terrorism increases when public figures speak in ways that seem to legitimize the terrorists' hatred (229). Similarly, Aaron Winter's chapter on “Antiabortion Extremism and Violence” brings a more analytical lens to the topic after a good, brief literature review, which helps place his own assessment among various existing schools of thought. Useful, too, is his discussion of the weaknesses of distinguishing “mainstream,” “militant,” and “extreme” groups; though use of these labels is perhaps unavoidable, he explores how these categories are subjective, contingent, and at times analytically unhelpful (228–229).

If the other chapters tend to be limited to the descriptive/historical approach, they generally succeed at maintaining an even-handed assessment — no small task when discussing controversial groups focused on contentious issues. Michael's own chapter on the Christian Identity Movement, for example, does a good job of taking the various extremist groups seriously without abandoning a critical lens. Similarly, James M. Lutz and Brenda J. Lutz, in a pair of chapters, are equitable to both Jewish and Islamic extremists. Concerning the latter group, they present strong evidence that counters the mainstream stress on Muslims as terrorists and the narrative that overstates the danger of Islamist terrorism. On other occasions, the reader may wish the particular author took a more critical eye. Michael's chapter on the Tea Party does little to test the frequent charges of racism, or of the movement's allegedly “astroturf” rather than grassroots dynamic. The chapter is heavy on early journalistic accounts of the Tea Party, but ignores the important research of Theda Skocpol and her colleagues, which drew on opinion surveys as well as fieldwork and personal interviews. Engagement with this research would have taken the reader deeper into the issues raised by the chapter and by the book more generally.

Those looking for rigorous theory-testing or even critical engagement with the existing literature will find little of it here. The lack of connections between the chapters — and the resulting repetitiveness — will also prove disappointing to serious students and scholars. But as an up-to-date introduction to a wide variety of religious and non-religious extremist movements, this should serve well as a classroom resource.