Product Description

In the mid 1990s self-styled Patriot John Pitner gathered around him a ragtag band of discontents, all eager to avenge themselves against America’s enemies, both foreign and domestic. Fervently believing that a New World Order threatened their liberty and way of life, Pitner and his recruits prepared for confrontation until an FBI sting led to their arrests on conspiracy charges in 1997.

In Lone Patriot, acclaimed New Yorker correspondent Jane Kramer delivers an intimate look into the life and mind of a militia leader and his followers, exploring the volatile mix of personalities and politics that shapes their extreme worldview. Through a series of exclusive interviews with them both before and after, Kramer paints an incredible portrait of a rural America that is rarely glimpsed but strikingly relevant.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1929804 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-08
• Released on: 2003-07-08
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 7.99" h x .58" w x 5.19" l, .43 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Kramer offers insight less into the violent, extreme right-wing militia movement than into a ragtag band of losers who have sought refuge from the world in the backwoods of Whatcom County, Wash., and united under the dubious leadership of self-styled Patriot John Pitner. Among the group are Fred Fisher, a convicted child molester, and Doc Ellwanger, who, misled by a swindler into not paying taxes, lost his veterinary business to the IRS. The members of Pitner's Washington State Militia are angry and alienated from mainstream America and eager to play with pipe bombs and grenades. But the source of their anger seems to be more their inconsequence and unpleasant run-ins with the government than an ideology that they seem too dimwitted to grasp. Kramer's opening sentence brilliantly conveys a certain lack of seriousness afflicting Pitner and his gang: "The enemy took John Pitner, by subterfuge and surprise, on a hot midsummer Saturday when no one could really have been expected to stand and fight, and the result was that John lost his liberty before he had a chance to save America." The centerpiece of this account is a portrait of Pitner, a ne'er-do-well with a "goofy charm." But the most notable, and sympathetic, characters are two women: John's wife, Debbie, who finally ups and leaves him, and his good-hearted lesbian sister, Susan, who steps in to save him after his eventual arrest and pays a heavy price. Kramer's strengths are her inquisitiveness, insight and graceful prose (she's a longtime European correspondent for the New Yorker, which has excerpted this book). But one ends up wondering whether the FBI and Kramer mightn't have better spent time pursuing real militiamen rather than this sad band of malcontents.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
For students of political pathology, Kramer has dissected a textbook specimen: John Pitner, a right-wing militiaman committed to the same ideology of paranoia that inspired Timothy McVeigh. In Pitman's case, the ideals lead not to national tragedy but to regional farce. In recounting Pitner's tangled career as a Patriot leader in the Washington State Militia, Kramer opens for us a shadowy world in which hapless blue-collar whites gather furtively to indulge in wild conspiracy theories; to ventilate their hatred of Jews, blacks, and immigrants; to exchange phony code words; and to fantasize about martyrdom in an impending war against the New World Order. Though his talk often turns vicious, Pitner's campaign of action veers toward the innocuously silly: to finance covert operations, this daring soldier gets as far as planning yard sales. The empty lunacy of Pitner's bravado seems to disappoint Kramer herself, who ends up shifting her focus to the two long-suffering women Pitner gulls into years of selfless labor for his cause. In the end, this self-styled freedom fighter disenchants both his credulous followers and his investigative biographer. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“May be the most important book written about America’s curious and very dangerous survivalist rightwing movement. . . . Superbly written.” —Los Angeles Times

“Well-drawn, superbly reported . . . Kramer does a fine job of portraying a group of everyday lost souls looking for something larger to blame.” —The New York Times Book Review

“[An] expertly reported study of an unsuccessful but potentially dangerous band of domestic terrorists.” —USA Today

“Kramer has . . . a powerful capacity to bring alive people and feelings. . . . Lovely writing, and the reporting can’t be faulted.” —The Baltimore Sun

“Kramer’s insights into the movement shed unexpected light on an eerie underworld frequented by men whose view of reality has more in common with violent video games than genuine political principles.” —Austin American-Statesman

“In Lone Patriot, Kramer has achieved something nearly miraculous. Through meticulous reporting and incisive, often humorous writing, she creates a warts-and-all yet somehow sympathetic portrait.” —The Hartford Courant

“[Kramer’s] writing is graceful and fluid, finding humor as easily as heartbreak.” —The Oregonian

“By turns hilarious and harrowing, Lone Patriot offers one of the most richly textured and deeply affecting narratives of Jane Kramer’s remarkable career.”—Lawrence Wechsler

“Elegantly spun, thoroughly researched. . . . A lively, important, and splendid investigation of one man and one more paranoid vision.” —Providence Journal-Bulletin

“With the breezy style of a good novelist and the seasoned eye of an historian, Jane Kramer has written a remarkable book.” —Arizona Daily Star

“Brilliant. Kramer is a poet of discontent and delusion, and in Whatcom County she has found a great subject.”—Ward Just

“Kramer has gone bravely into the belly of a beast which is alive and well in America and which most of us prefer not to acknowledge. We avoid looking where she takes us in Lone Patriot at our peril.”—Bob Kerrey