Race, Rights, and Rifles

Reviews / Votes

"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) * "In Race, Rights, and Rifles, Alexandra Filindra embarks on an exploration of the historical trajectory of American gun culture. Tracing the roots of this culture all the way back to the country's founding era, Filindra succeeds at both deepening our understanding of the history of guns in the US and providing fresh insights into their place in contemporary political life." * Interest Groups & Advocacy * "Amid considerable interest in the future of the National Rifle Association (NRA), Filindra provides a novel and compelling analysis of its origins and development. . . .A great book." * Choice * "An important and well written book on the history and ideological development of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and how the organization has impacted, and ultimately distorted, the proper role of guns in American society." * Society for US Intellectual History * "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