Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe: Political Extremism in America is a 1992 book by John George and Laird Wilcox. It is an examination of political extremism of both the far left and far right in the United States.
The authors attempt to summarize the pre-1960 historical background of American extremist movements, discuss conspiracy theories and their validity, offer their insight on what motivates extremists, and discuss a number of contemporary groups on the "far left" and "far right" based principally on their personal contacts with approximately six hundred individual extremists and the extremists' own writings.
It was published by Prometheus Books (Buffalo, New York) in 1992 as a 523-page hardcover . In 1996, Prometheus Books (Amherst, New York) republished it as American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists and Others in a 443-page paperback .
The authors give the history of their personal interest in political extremism. Recognizing their fallibility, and inability to claim "anything approaching complete objectivity", the authors attempted to "make an honest and diligent attempt to be fair and even-handed in our treatment of this subject." Distinguishing this book from the many covering "extremism" or "extremists" on the market (with their own agenda "to provide a rationale for persecuting or doing away with certain 'extremists'"), the authors' goal was "to provide understanding of a human problem, not a basis for one more round of persecutions." The authors propose a definition of "extremism" based on "the behavioral model" ("defined in terms of certain behaviors, particularly behavior toward other human beings"), passing up the "normative or "statistical" way" (framing the spectrum on a linear scale, a "bell curve") and the "popularity contest" theory ("social definition agreed upon by collective fiat"). The authors describe their position on the political spectrum as "a bit difficult to pin down"; they "might be most accurately described as pragmatists with libertarian tendencies."
Chapter 1. It's Not New: Historical Perspective on American Extremism Prior to 1960
Chapter 2. What Is Extremism? Style and Tactics Matter More Than Goals
Chapter 3. Extremists and the Constitution
Chapter 4. Motivations: Why They Join, Stay, Leave
Chapter 5. Communist Party USA
Chapter 6. Socialist Workers Party
Chapter 7. Spartacist League
Chapter 8. Workers League
Chapter 9. The Guardian
Chapter 10. Black Panther Party
Chapter 11. Students for a Democratic Society
Chapter 12. Progressive Labor Party
Chapter 13. Workers World Party
Chapter 14. Communist Party USA (Marxist–Leninist)
Chapter 15. Revolutionary Action Movement
Chapter 16. Revolutionary Communist Party
Chapter 17. Communist Workers Party
Chapter 18. All-African People's Revolutionary Party
Chapter 19. Marxist–Leninist Party, USA
Chapter 20. Reverend Billy James Hargis and his Christian Crusade
Chapter 21. The John Birch Society: A Plot to Sell Books?
Chapter 22. The Dan Smoot Report
Chapter 23. "Life Line"
Chapter 24. The Church League of America
Chapter 25. The Christian Right
Chapter 26. Willis Carto and Liberty Lobby
Chapter 27. The Citizens' Councils of America and The Councilor
Chapter 28. Robert Bolivar DePugh and the Minutemen
Chapter 29. Common Sense
Chapter 30. Gerald L. K. Smith and Christian Nationalist Crusade
Chapter 31. The LaRouche Network
Chapter 32. Jewish Defense League
Chapter 33. The Nation of Islam
Chapter 34. Assorted Neo-Nazis
Chapter 35. The National States' Rights Party
Chapter 36. National Christian Publishers
Chapter 37. Ku Klux Klans