Focuses on how the NRA constructs and perceives threats to gun rights as one more attack in a broad liberal cultural war
Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Part I Defending Guns, Defending Masculinity 1 Frontier Masculinity, America's "Gun Culture," and the NRA 2 Why a Gun Movement? Part II Talking Guns, Talking Culture War 3 Framing Threats to Gun Rights 4 Under Attack 5 Fighting the Culture WarsPart III Committing to the NRA, Committing to the Right 6 The Politics of Commitment 7 Right and Far-Right Moral Politics 8 The Ties That Bind Epilogue: Tomorrow's NRA Appendix: Studying the NRA Notes Index About the Author
Scott Melzer is Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Anthropology & Sociology at Albion College.
"The author argues a very credible thesis: that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is more than a single-interest group defending the right to own and bear arms. The NRA should also be understood as a social movement organization dedicated broadly to preserving traditional, conservative values." CHOICE "Melzer brilliantly integrates deep personal observation with data and theory to construct a three-dimensional portrait of the modern gun rights movement. In a wonderfully written, engaging, and scrupulously fair narrative, Melzer's book makes a major contribution to our understanding of this tumultuous social movement and also happens to be a really good read." Robert J. Spitzer, author of The Politics of Gun Control "Melzer takes us inside the NRA to reveal that more than gun control - much more - is at stake: a way of life and a definition of manhood that members feel is disintegrating in their hands... [This is] a book that is both balanced and brave, critical and yet compassionate to men who have so lost their way that their guns offer their last tenuous hold on their identity." Michael Kimmel, author of Guyland "This book is well written, and raises interesting issues about the transformation of interest groups in a period of polarized politics." Clyde Wilcox Political Science Quarterly
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