Patriots, politics, and the Oklahoma City bombing / Stuart A. Wright.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-232) and index.

Codicil to a patriot profile -- Patriots, political process, and social movements -- The historical context of patriot insurgency -- The farm crisis, threat attribution, and patriot mobilization -- State mobilization : building a trajectory of contention -- The gun rights network and nascent patriots : rise of a threat spiral -- Movement-state attributions of war : Ruby Ridge and Waco -- Patriot insurgency and the Oklahoma City bombing -- After Oklahoma City : patriot demobilization and decline.

This book explores new ground in social movements by analyzing an escalating spiral of tension between the Patriot movement and the state centered on the mutual framing of conflict as "warfare." By examining the social construction of "warfare" as a principal script or frame defining the movement-state dynamic, Stuart A. Wright explains how this highly charged confluence of a war narrative engendered a kind of symbiosis leading to the escalation of a mutual threat that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. Wright offers a unique perspective on the events leading up to the bombing because he served as a consultant to Timothy McVeigh's defense team and draws on primary data based on face-to-face interviews with McVeigh. The book contends that McVeigh was firmly entrenched in the Patriot movement and was part of a network of "warrior cells" that planned and implemented the bombing. As such, the bombing must be viewed through the lens of a social movement framework in order to fully understand the incident and the role played by McVeigh.