Academic Background

BA (Law and Politics) First Class, University of Hull, UK
MA, American Studies, University of East Anglia, UK
PhD, University of East Anglia, UK

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois, USA
Law Society Finals (J.D. equivalent), College of Law, Guildford, UK

Biography

Academic Interests

Political extremism; radicalism; violence; terrorism; post-1945 U.S. history; American film and popular music   

Courses Taught

HI114: Problems in US History

HI260: History on Film

HI332: Twentieth-Century US Foreign Policy

HI346: American Protest Music in the Twentieth Century

HI441: Arguing About Democracy: American Extremism, 1776-2000
HI643: Twentieth-Century American Extremism

Recent Publications

Monographs

American Extremism: History, Politics and the Militia Movement (London: Routledge, 2004)

Homegrown Revolutionaries: An American Militia Reader (Norwich: Arthur Miller Centre for American Studies, 1999)

Chapters in Books

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History, edited by Lynn Dumenil. Essay on the militia movement in the United States. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.)

'Extremism and Americanism: The Modern Militia Movement in the United States and its History Politics, 1994-2010,' in Jahrbuch fur Politik und Geschichte 2 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2012): 75-91.

 'Riots, Disasters and Racism: Impending Racial Cataclysm and the American Extreme Right,' with George Michael in Naming Race, Naming Racism (New York: Routledge, 2009). Edited by Jonathan Judaken.

'Into Dark Places: Violence, History and the American Militia Movement,' in Sizing Up Rhetoric (Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, 2007). Edited by David Zarefsky and Elizabeth Benacka.

World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006). Edited by Cyprian Blaimes. Essays on survivalism and the German-American Bund.

Conspiracy Theories in American History (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003). Edited by Peter Knight.  Essays on the Oklahoma City bombing, Waco, the United Nations, the National Rifle Association and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

Articles

'Whatever Happened to the American Militia Movement?' Extremis Project <extremisproject.org> (Oct. 2012) 

 'Is There a "Field"? And if There Isn't, Should We be Worried About It?' in 'Roundtable: Terrorism and the American Experience: A State of the Field.' Journal of American History 98, 1 (June 2011): 111-114. 

'New Panthers, Old Panthers and the Politics of Black Nationalism in the United States.' Patterns of Prejudice 44 , 3 (2010): 217-238.

'Riots, Disasters and Racism: Impending Racial Cataclysm and the American Extreme Right.' with George Michael. Patterns of Prejudice 42, 4&5 (2008): 465-487.  

'"Liberty or Death": Violence and the Rhetoric of Revolution in the American Militia Movement.' Canadian Review of American Studies 38, 1 (2008): 119-145.

‘Conversing with the Dead: The Militia Movement and American History.’ Journal of American Studies 38  (2004): 439-456

 'A Hero to Most: Rap, Race and Reputation in 8 Mile,' Spiked (Summer 2003): 10-11

‘To Dream of Dancing Dwarves: The Meaning of Mulholland Drive.’ Spiked (Winter 2002): 10–11

'Terror, Violence and Public Relations: Hollywood and 9/11.' Spiked (Spring 2002): 10-12

‘High Anxiety: Hollywood History in U-571 and The Patriot.’ Spiked (Winter: 2001): 10–11

‘What’s the Rumpus: In Defence of the Coen Brothers.’ Spiked (Autumn 1999): 14–15

Recent Book Reviews

'Terrorism as Crime: From Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond by Mark S. Hamm,' Terrorism and Political Violence 25, 2 (2013) 331-333. 

'Chasing Phantoms: Reality, Imagination and Homeland Security Since 9/11 by Michael Barkun,' Terrorism and Political Violence 24, 5 (2012): 861-862.

'A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of his Arm a Tiny Bomb by Amitava Kumar,' Terrorism and Political Violence 24, 3 (2012): 513-514.  

'Right in Michigan's Grassroots: From the KKK to the Michigan Militia by JoEllen McNergney Vinyard,' Journal of American Studies 46, 2 (2012) E36.

'The Barbarisation of Warfare by George Kassimeris (ed.),' Terrorism and Political Violence 23, 5 (2011): 844-845. 

'Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq by Jeffrey Record,' Terrorism and Political Violence 23, 4 (2011): 674-675. 

'Terrorism: The New World Disorder by Nicholas Fotion, Boris Kashnikov, and Joanne K. Lekea and War and Ethics: A New Just War Theory by Nicholas Fotion,' Terrorism and Political Violence 23. 4 (2011) 678-679.

'One Family's Response to Terrorism: A Daughter's Memoir by Susan Kerr van de Ven,' Terrorism and Political Violence 23, 3 (2011): 474-475.

'Demagogues: The Fight to Save Democracy From its Worst Enemies by Michael Signer,' Terrorism and Political Violence 22, 3 (2010): 465-67.

'Revolution Unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the Present by Gilles Dorronsoro,' Terrorism and Political Violence,  22, 2 (2010): 329-30.

'The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire and the Future of America by Peter Dale Scott,' Terrorism and Political Violence, 22, 1 (2010): 126-27.

'Playing Politics with Terrorism: A Users Guide (ed) George Kassimeris,' Terrorism and Political Violence, 22, 1 (2010): 131-33. 

'Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 by Kathryn S. Olmsted,' Journal of American History (December 2009): 886-87.

 'Thinking Like a Terrorist: Insights of a Former Undercover FBI Agent by Mike German,' Terrorism and Political Violence, 21, 4 (2009): 646-47.

'White Rage: The Extreme Right and American Politics by Martin Durham,' Critical Studies on Terrorism 2, 1 (2009): 119-21.

Why War?: The Cultural Logic of Iraq, The Gulf War and Suez by Philip Smith,' Terrorism and Political Violence 20, 2 (April-June 2008): 312-314