Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: "You just have to impose your will" : the right resurrects vigilantism -- "We need something from state legislatures to make this legitimate" : the January 7 Project -- Part I: Who we've always been -- "Absconded" : the Confederate roots of legal vigilantism -- "We are the oppressed" : from Jim Crow to the border militias -- "The way things ought to be" : the road to vigilante democracy -- Part II: Legal vigilantism -- "An institutionalization of the heckler's veto" : dissenter vigilantism -- "You're just gonna have your f-cking life destroyed" : courthouse vigilantism -- "You can't run them over, DeSantis said so!" : street vigilantism -- "We're going to be watching" : electoral vigilantism -- Part III: The stakes -- "The very definition of lawlessness" : how legal vigilantism suffocates democracy -- Part IV: First responders -- "Not without electoral or political power" : the empty promise of voting our way out of this mess -- "Divide and inflame" : why corporations won't save us -- More like 1850 than 1950 : the international community won't save the day -- "A world where ... Texas is at war with California" : the Blue state counterstrike.

"For readers of How Democracies Die, two legal scholars expose the history of the GOP's hidden political strategy to rollback protected rights, from abortion and gun control to surveillance and LGBTQ rights. Virginia's governor sets up a tip line for parents to snitch on teachers who acknowledge the reality of racial inequality. Texas unleashes bounty hunters against individuals who aid or abet anyone seeking an abortion. Florida encourages drivers to run over Black Lives Matter protesters who gather peacefully. And everywhere, there is the persistent threat of political violence. While these episodes might seem to be isolated spasms of MAGA rage, they reflect a concerted legal and political strategy that has been quietly unfolding in courts, think tanks, and state legislatures since the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. With painstaking and enlightening research, Vigilante Nation exposes the insidious network of right-wing lawyers, politicians, funders, and preachers who are deploying vigilantism to cement their hold on power and impose a theocratic version of America. For so long, we have been taught by a bipartisan consensus that vigilantism is incompatible with our rule of law, but our history shows that the right has used it to enforce their vision of true social order. From the Fugitive Slave Act's use of bounty hunters to Southern militias violently enforcing the terror of Jim Crow, America has long been the home of political vigilantism. Now, discover what the future holds and how crucial it is that we each understand our country's vigilante laws"-- Provided by publisher.