"September 11th 2001 has heightened awareness of the threat posed by violent, anti-American groups in other nations. Lest we forget, the terrorist infrastructure that contributed to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 is still a force in our society. Daniel Levitas has written a timely and compelling book that reveals the origins and poisonous ideology of radical right organizations and their leaders at work in America. The Terrorist Next Door is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of hate groups, and it should be required reading for everyone who is concerned about this serious threat to our security and our democracy."

-- Coretta Scott King

"The militia movement burst into the consciousness of Americans with the Oklahoma City bombing, but hate groups have a long, shameful lineage in America. In this detailed, provocative examination, Levitas focuses on the ideas of William Potter Gale, who, despite Jewish roots, became one of the progenitors of contemporary hate ('If a Jew comes near you, run a sword through him,' he told radio listeners in 1982). Gale adapted the idea of the Posse Comitatus, based on a little-known 19th-century law, to spread his notion of the need for citizen militias to defend whites. But, as Levitas, an expert on the radical right, shows, Gale is just one in a long line of racists who have used American ideas and language (such as freedom, rights and private property) to disseminate their message, which often finds a home with the alienated, sparked by specific events such as the shootouts at Ruby Ridge and Waco in the 1990s. Perhaps most disturbingly, Levitas makes a strong argument that these groups have a broad-based 'weak sympathy' in numbers that far exceed their small active membership. He also shows how state and local governments have been reluctant to act against these groups, either out of sympathy or in an effort to keep the spotlight away from them. But as Levitas emphasizes, Oklahoma City and the hate groups' cheering for the September 11 attacks demonstrate that these groups will be ignored at our peril."

- Publishers Weekly

Levitas' research is exhaustive....admirable job...ominous message"

-- Kirkus Reviews

"Daniel Levitas's well-researched book reminds us that the bizarre ideas of the radical right are not only dangerous in their own right, but in this fearful time, dangerously influential."

-  William S. McFeely, historian and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Grant and Frederick Douglass

With so much attention focused on international terrorism, this book hits closer to home with an eye-opening look at potential domestic terrorist threats. Levitas explores the historic roots of Far Right hate groups in the U.S., how they have developed and evolved, and how the government has responded or failed to respond to this potent threat from within. Levitas traces the virulent racial hatred of these groups to similar sentiments in Europe during the Middle Ages; through U.S. slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction; during World War II; and through desegregation and the civil rights movement. He also traces the metamorphosis of various groups, including the Citizens' Council, Ku Klux Klan, and John Birch Society, detailing their bizarre theories of racial superiority and escalating violence. Levitas notes the groups' efforts to broaden their appeal beyond racism by promoting tax protests, resistance to gun control, and discontent about government intrusion, and the troubling political trends that have lent support to antigovernment militia groups since the 1960s. This is a well-researched, disturbing look at domestic terrorism.

-Booklist