Description
Book SynopsisOffers an inside look at how the four-million member National Rifle Association and its committed members come to see each and every gun control threat as a step down the path towards gun confiscation, and eventually socialism.
Trade ReviewMelzer brilliantly integrates deep personal observation with data and theory to construct a three-dimensional portrait of the modern gun rights movement. In a wonderfully written, engaging, and scrupulously fair narrative, Melzers book makes a major contribution to our understanding of this tumultuous social movement and also happens to be a really good read. It's fresh, clear-eyed, and fair. Anyone wanting to understand the gun movement must read this book. -- Robert J. Spitzer,author of The Politics of Gun Control
Melzer takes us inside the NRA to reveal that more than gun controlmuch moreis at stake: a way of life and a definition of manhood that members feel is disintegrating in their hands... [This is] a book that is both balanced and brave, critical and yet compassionate to men who have so lost their way that their guns offer their last tenuous hold on their identity. -- Michael Kimmel,author of Guyland
This book is well written, and raises interesting issues about the transformation of interest groups in a period of polarized politics. -- Clyde Wilcox * Political Science Quarterly *
The author argues a very credible thesis: that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is more than a single-interest group defending the right to own and bear arms. The NRA should also be understood as a social movement organization dedicated broadly to preserving traditional, conservative values. * Choice *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Preface Introduction Part I Defending Guns, Defending Masculinity 1 Frontier Masculinity, America's "Gun Culture," and the NRA 2 Why a Gun Movement? Part II Talking Guns, Talking Culture War 3 Framing Threats to Gun Rights 4 Under Attack 5 Fighting the Culture WarsPart III Committing to the NRA, Committing to the Right 6 The Politics of Commitment 7 Right and Far-Right Moral Politics 8 The Ties That Bind Epilogue: Tomorrow's NRA Appendix: Studying the NRA Notes Index About the Author
