UCLA School of Law

When confronted with challenges to their power, white Christian nationalists time and again have sought solace in state-supported forms of vigilantism. This was true when Northern abolitionists threatened the Southern slavocracy. It was also true in the aftermath of the Civil War, when emancipated Black Americans and their Northern allies sought to fulfill the promises of Reconstruction. And though this pattern was seemingly broken by the Civil Rights revolution of the 1950s and ’60s, political violence that has the tacit or explicit backing of police, prosecutors, legislators, judges, governors, and even presidents has made a surprising, roaring comeback in the years following the failed coup of January 6th.Vigilante Nation underscores the stakes as it tells the story of the right’s work to marginalize, subordinate, and disenfranchise Americans through numerous methods, ranging from book bans to anti-abortion bounties to attacks on citizens, voters, and government officials.