Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy




« back to classes page
ClassGraphic Ten months into the second Trump presidency, political violence is in the air. What might surprise you is how far back American political violence goes, and how much of it has been state-sponsored. In Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2025), law professors Jon Michaels and David Noll trace the roots of state-authorized political violence back to the antebellum South, where it was turned on abolitionists, and the post-Reconstruction South, where it was the foundation of the Jim Crow era. The violence directed at the “Freedom Riders” of the Civil Rights movement came from the same source; yet the victory of that movement, expressed in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, seemed to put an end to it. But now it has come roaring back. The January 6 “insurrection” was just the largest expression of the determination of modern vigilantes to impose their will. This new wave of vigilantism includes right-wing activists, lawyers, grifters, and plutocrats who rally around our current President and blame their problems on Democrats, minorities, immigrants, scientists, bureaucrats, and educators. Join us as we consider this threat to democracy.
 

Class Details

4 Session(s)
Weekly - Mon

Location
TBD

Instructor
Multiple

Tuition: 

$0.00

Email olli@northwestern.edu for more information. Send to Friend »

Schedule Information

Date(s) Class Days Times Location Instructor(s)
1/26/2026 - 2/16/2026 Weekly - Mon 09:45 AM - 11:45 AM TBD James Smith  ; Sharon Alter 

Recommended Classes