In Aryan Cowboys: White Supremacists and the Search for a New Frontier 1970–2000 (University of Texas Press, 2006), Evelyn Schlatter (MA anthropology ’91) explores the move — both in a physical and imaginative sense — of white supremacists during the end of the 20th century.
Some white supremacists, Schlatter writes, view the West as a potential white homeland. And contrary to popular conceptions, she notes, white supremacists are not “fringe elements.”
The book describes how white supremacist groups have adopted the West’s mythology and environment based on longstanding beliefs about American character and Manifest Destiny. Schlatter also explores the ways that groups, including the Aryan Nations, create sympathy for their extremist views among mainstream whites.
Schlatter is an independent scholar in Nashville. She holds a PhD in history from the University of New Mexico.