New Edition of 'Rise of the Anti-Media' Available

Arctos Media Ltd of London has produced a more affordable paper edition of Rise of the Anti-Media by Brian Anse Patrick.  This 2014 edition differs in one major way from the first edition published by Lexington Books, and that is in the initial price.  The edition offered by Lexington is hardbound and originally cost $73.   It is no longer in print, and now that the paperback version has been released, there are a few copies of the first edition available on Amazon for the bargain price of $31.49.  I expect those to be snapped up shortly.  The paperback edition is nicely done, and available at only a 71 cents less on Amazon at $30.78.  The kindle editon, for those who have the device, is a real bargain at $9.99.   The paperback edition also has a forward that does a good job of summing up the work.   The paperback edition has 331 pages.  Whichever edition you choose, this book is must reading for anyone attempting to understand the dynamics of gun and second amendment politics over the last 50 years.

The Rise of the Anti-Media is a profound academic examination of how the gun culture has been able to triumph in the face of overwhelming opposition from the ruling elite.   This is not a book that is light summer reading.   The issues examined, the research done, and the theory put forward to explain the phenomena, are worthy of serious study.    Information in the book is dense.  Brian Anse Patrick packs a great deal into only 282 pages.  The book captured my attention.  I devoured it in a day, but find myself repeatedly returning for more insight.

It helps to have been intimately involved in many of the subjects discussed.   Nearly everyone who has been involved in second amendment activism during the last five decades will find themselves nodding in agreement as they read this book.  

Rise of the Anti-Media contains an important historical narrative of how we arrived at where we are, but it goes much further.   It develops a theory that explains how it happened and how it works.  This has considerable practical value;  it is not simply of academic interest.   

The historical information alone is worth the time taken to read the book.  Did you know that Franklin Roosevelt vetoed the Uniform Revolver Act that was passed by the New York legislature in 1923, apparently favoring the more restrictive Sullivan act?

The meat of the book, however, is in the theory of how the gun culture created and developed the means to overcome the control of information flow by the ruling elite.   Brian Anse Patrick explicitly details how the gun culture that we know today was precipitated from the existing culture by attacks from the ruling elite; how opposition in the old media helped to grow and solidify it; how it came to form what he terms "horizontal interpretive communities".  

It is through the power of those overlapping communities that the gun culture is able to defeat attacks on the right to keep and bear arms, develop and pass legislation, defeat and elect politicians, and shape the national understanding of the Constitution. 

Here is what Professor Patrick has to say about the power of the NRA:

But NRA is not the source of the power.  The power lies in the matrix of horizontal associations that constitute the new gun culture.  NRA has money because these people provide money, lots of it, regularly.  They are not minions or "rank and file."  Emphatically, they do not serve the NRA; rather, NRA serves them as best it can.

I do not want to give the impression that Rise of the Anti-Media is about the NRA; it is not.   The NRA is covered, but is only a small part of the overall picture.

The focus of the book is on how concealed carry law was reformed across the country.   The original book was published in 2010.  The forward in the paperback edition speaks of Wisconsin.  While the focus is on concealed carry laws, the theme applies to all the concerns of the gun culture.

If you want to understand the dynamics involved in restoring and creating a strong right to keep and bear arms across the United States, this book will provide answers.   I learned a great deal, and the book helped to solidify much of what I had surmised but did not have the available facts to verify.

The book does not provide a list of suggestions or actions on how to improve the existing strategies and tactics of the gun culture.   The theory of "horizontal interpretive communities" does, however, imply that some changes in emphasis could be useful.    It is left to the reader to determine how to use this new understanding to their advantage.


 ©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch