The hate movement has grown over the last decade in response to economic and social changes. I have come to believe that people join hate groups because they desire empowerment and a sense of community in a shifting climate. For this reason, when working to dissolve the movement, it is essential to understand it as something more than an institution of bigotry. This paper focuses on the neo-Nazi movement as one segment of a larger population, with the understanding that my findings will be relevant to the movement as a whole. I have read academic sources such as Pete Simi and Robert Futrell’s American Swastika and Randy Blazak’s “White Boys to Terrorist Men.” I have also made use of the databases of the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Finally, I referred to the personal memoirs of former neo-Nazis Frank Meeink and T. J. Leyden. It is my hope that this investigation will be useful to activists in restricting the growth of the hate movement.

Much has been written on the topics of Nazism and hate groups. My thesis project is an 84-page book that I wrote and designed in an attempt to organize and condense the vast array of available research and discussion. It is intended to introduce the audience to the neo-Nazi movement in the United States and to inspire them to further investigate these issues.