Description
Book SynopsisAn eye-opening examination of the ties between American gun culture and white male supremacy from the American Revolution to today. One-third of American adultsapproximately 86 million peopleown firearms. This is not just for protection or hunting. Although many associate gun-centric ideology with individualist and libertarian traditions in American political culture, Race, Rights, and Rifles shows that it rests on an equally old but different foundation. Instead, Alexandra Filindra shows that American gun culture can be traced back to the American Revolution when republican notions of civic duty were fused with a belief in white male supremacy and a commitment to maintaining racial and gender hierarchies. Drawing on wide-ranging historical and contemporary evidence, Race, Rights, and Rifles traces how this ideology emerged during the Revolution and became embedded in America's institutions, from state militias to the National Rifle Association (NRA).Utilizing original survey data,
Trade Review"This is a deeply informed, persuasive book, offering a compelling overview of how Americans became militarized and how that militarization is increasing....An enlightening, timely study of the evolution of arguments about gun ownership." * Kirkus (starred review) *
“Theoretically ambitious, empirically rich, and politically pertinent,
Race, Rights and Rifles examines how guns relate to US citizenship. Reconstructing the political history of guns in the US and dissecting its ongoing impact on the present-day,
Race, Rights and Rifles shows how ascriptive republicanism transforms the right to self-defense—a basic human impulse for survival—into a rallying point for political polarization and a justification for an investment in illiberal democracy.” -- Jennifer Dawn Carlson | author of "Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy"
“Why are gun killings in the United States an everyday occurrence?
Race, Rights, and Rifles blends intellectual and political history, an eye-opening account of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and contemporary public opinion data to provide compelling answers. Alexandra Filindra shows that the American Revolution fused white male gun ownership with ideals of republican civic virtue in ways that the NRA has long championed. Consequentially, this has led a shocking number of Americans to believe that they have a fundamental right to engage in vigilante violence—like invading the Capitol or shooting a Black teenager who mistakenly knocks on the wrong door.” -- Rogers Smith | University of Pennsylvania
Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part One: Historical Foundations
Chapter 1
Republican Ideology in Early America
Chapter 2
An Exclusive Vision of Virtue and Citizenship
Chapter 3
Militias and the Institutionalization of Ascriptive Republicanism
Chapter 4
Cultural Transmission
Part Two: The Origins and Worldview of the NRA
Chapter 5
The Emergence of the NRA
Chapter 6
An Organization of White Men
Chapter 7
Political Virtue
Chapter 8
Political Corruption
Chapter 9
The NRA’s Theory of Democracy
Part Three: Ascriptive Republicanism in Contemporary White Public Opinion
Chapter 10
Ascriptive Republicanism and White Gun Attitudes Today
Chapter 11
From “Stand Your Ground” to “Stand Back and Stand By”
Conclusion
Democratic Stability in Peril
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
