Gun Crusaders

"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, Melzers book makes a major contribution to our understanding of this tumultuous social movement and also happens to be a really good read. It's fresh, clear-eyed, and fair. Anyone wanting to understand the gun movement must read this book." ~Robert J. Spitzer,author of The Politics of Gun Control

"Melzer takes us inside the NRA to reveal that more than gun controlmuch moreis 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

"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