Hateland: A Long, Hard Look at America’s Extremist Heart

A former Department of Homeland Security analyst takes a long view on the domestic terrorism threat from radicalized individuals and hate groups of various ideologies.

America is a land in which extremism no longer belongs to the country’s shadowy fringes, but comfortably exists in the national mainstream. That is the alarming conclusion by intelligence analyst Daryl Johnson, an expert on domestic extremism with more than twenty-five years of experience tracking radicalized groups for the US government.

In this book, Johnson dissects the rapidly expanding forms of American hatred and radicalization, including white nationalists, antigovernment militias, antifascists (Antifa), militant black nationalists, and extremist Islamic groups. The author develops a concise model that explains how extremists on both the far right and the far left use the same techniques to recruit and to radicalize individuals, turning them into violent offenders. He also examines the political forces that fuel this threat and have kept the US government from properly identifying and developing countermeasures to deal with it, including a disproportional emphasis on Islamic terrorism.

Johnson concludes by recounting individual stories of deradicalization, each of which was the result of personal reevaluations of formerly held extremist convictions. He recommends more resources at the state and federal levels for combatting radical movements and urges greater communication and coordination between law enforcement agencies. This in-depth analysis of a growing menace that has taken America hostage throws a stark light on the darkest segments of American society and provides practical means for dealing with their violent threats.