What do you think?
Rate this book
Lone Patriot: The Short Career of an American Militiaman
In the mid 1990s self-styled Patriot John Pitner gathered around him a ragtag band of discontents, all eager to avenge themselves against America’s enemies, both foreign and domestic. Fervently believing that a New World Order threatened their liberty and way of life, Pitner and his recruits prepared for confrontation until an FBI sting led to their arrests on conspiracy charges in 1997.
In Lone Patriot , acclaimed New Yorker correspondent Jane Kramer delivers an intimate look into the life and mind of a militia leader and his followers, exploring the volatile mix of personalities and politics that shapes their extreme worldview. Through a series of exclusive interviews with them both before and after, Kramer paints an incredible portrait of a rural America that is rarely glimpsed but strikingly relevant.
In Lone Patriot , acclaimed New Yorker correspondent Jane Kramer delivers an intimate look into the life and mind of a militia leader and his followers, exploring the volatile mix of personalities and politics that shapes their extreme worldview. Through a series of exclusive interviews with them both before and after, Kramer paints an incredible portrait of a rural America that is rarely glimpsed but strikingly relevant.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Jane Kramer
33 books16 followers Jane Kramer has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1964 and has written the Letter from Europe since 1981.
Before joining the magazine, Kramer was a staff writer for the Village Voice; her first book, “Off Washington Square,” is a collection of her articles from that paper. She has published two collections of essays from The New Yorker, “Allen Ginsberg in America,” (1969) and “Honor to the Bride,” (1970), which was based on her experiences in Morocco in the late nineteen-sixties.
Since 1970, most of Kramer’s work for the magazine has covered various aspects of European culture, politics, and social history. Many of these articles have been collected in three books: “Unsettling Europe,” (1980); “Europeans,” (1988), which won the Prix Européen de l’Essai “Charles Veillon” and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction; and “The Politics of Memory: Looking for Germany in the New Germany,” (1996).
A notable exception to Kramer’s European reporting was her 1977 Profile of the pseudonymous Texan Henry Blanton. It was later published as a book, “The Last Cowboy,” (1977), which won the American Book Award for nonfiction. Parts of her book “Lone Patriot,” (2002), on the right-wing American militia leader John Pitner, also first appeared in the magazine. Her article on multiculturalism and political correctness, “Whose Art Is It?,” won the 1993 National Magazine Award for feature writing and was published as a book in 1994.
Jane Kramer lives in Paris, New York, and Umbria, Italy.
Before joining the magazine, Kramer was a staff writer for the Village Voice; her first book, “Off Washington Square,” is a collection of her articles from that paper. She has published two collections of essays from The New Yorker, “Allen Ginsberg in America,” (1969) and “Honor to the Bride,” (1970), which was based on her experiences in Morocco in the late nineteen-sixties.
Since 1970, most of Kramer’s work for the magazine has covered various aspects of European culture, politics, and social history. Many of these articles have been collected in three books: “Unsettling Europe,” (1980); “Europeans,” (1988), which won the Prix Européen de l’Essai “Charles Veillon” and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction; and “The Politics of Memory: Looking for Germany in the New Germany,” (1996).
A notable exception to Kramer’s European reporting was her 1977 Profile of the pseudonymous Texan Henry Blanton. It was later published as a book, “The Last Cowboy,” (1977), which won the American Book Award for nonfiction. Parts of her book “Lone Patriot,” (2002), on the right-wing American militia leader John Pitner, also first appeared in the magazine. Her article on multiculturalism and political correctness, “Whose Art Is It?,” won the 1993 National Magazine Award for feature writing and was published as a book in 1994.
Jane Kramer lives in Paris, New York, and Umbria, Italy.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 22, 2013
A terrific profile of a militia organizer and the crowd of losers and misfits he attracts. Fortunately, these fellows had too little money to arm themselves in pursuit of their cracked, paranoid ambitions, and law enforcement was sufficiently alert, post-Oklahoma City, to roll them up before anyone was hurt. Kramer, an outstanding journalist, got close to the protagonist and is empathetic ... Up to a point, when flabbergasted by the accumulated nonsense and sheer irresponsibility of the patriots, she cracks wise.
December 18, 2022
This book wasn’t what I expected. I thought it’d be a more stripped down journalistic account of John Pitner’s life. And sort of a critique of right militias situated in the details of his story. Instead it was literary and editorializing. I liked it. Kramer told the story in a way that accentuated its surprising turns.
But I didn’t agree with the tone she used to describe the militia members throughout the book. The thesis she develops is that these people are stupid and ridiculous. She is painting them as incompetent, bumbling dopes, and to some extent they were. But bumbling dopes who are organizing with caches of weapons and explosives and who are meeting regularly to consolidate their hateful ideology and reinforce each other’s delusional theories are not to be dismissed.
But I didn’t agree with the tone she used to describe the militia members throughout the book. The thesis she develops is that these people are stupid and ridiculous. She is painting them as incompetent, bumbling dopes, and to some extent they were. But bumbling dopes who are organizing with caches of weapons and explosives and who are meeting regularly to consolidate their hateful ideology and reinforce each other’s delusional theories are not to be dismissed.
October 4, 2018
Interesting portrait of a 1990s militiaman, and brilliantly written and observed, but the snarkiness dragged it down after awhile -- might have been a better article than book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews