Mark Pitcavage is a historian and analyst of

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

wing groups. He works with the Anti-Defamation League and was the creator of the now-archived Militia Watchdog website. The site has been an archive since 2000 when Pitcavage took the position of Director of Fact Finding for the Anti-Defamation League. Pitcavage earned a PhD in American military and social history from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in 1995. His PhD dissertation was entitled "An Equitable Burden: The Decline of State Militias 1783-1858".

Activism

Militia Watchdog

The Militia Watchdog website was founded by Pitcavage in 1995 following the

Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. The bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Perpetr ...

and operated until 2000. The site's subscription list, which mainly included law enforcement officers and other "watchdog" groups, is still being used by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The site also worked in cooperation with other "watchdog" groups such as The Center for New Community, the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

and the

Simon Wiesenthal Center The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating antisemitism, tolerance educati ...

.^(p34) Pitcavage's Militia Watchdog profiles have been used as a source for writers on militias and their activities. With the success of the Militia Watchdog project, Pitcavage was made the Director of Investigative Research for the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training Program (SLATT).^(p34) The SLATT program is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Anti-Defamation League

The ADL absorbed Pitcavage's Militia Watchdog group and now maintains the site as an archive of his work between 1995 and 2000.

Commentator on terrorism, gangs, and extremism

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Pitcavage was cited as a terrorism and extremism expert by mainstream media. In 2002, he was interviewed and quoted at length about prison gangs by the

. Pitcavage has given interviews for radio stations such as

KCBS (AM) KCBS (740 kHz) is an all-news AM radio station located in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. (formerly Entercom), which took over after its merger with CBS Radio. KCBS formerly shared its Battery Street studios with CB ...

. In 2006, a student radio station at St. Petersburg College interviewed Pitcavage for an episode titled "Militia Movement".

Bibliography

Academic journal articles

*''Ropes of Sand: Territorial Militias, 1801-1812'', ''Journal of the Early Republic,'' Vol. 13, No. 4, University of Pennsylvania Press (1993) (pp. 481–500) *''Camouflage and Conspiracy: The Militia Movement From Ruby Ridge to Y2K'', ''American Behavioral Scientist,'' 44, no. 6 (2001): 957-981

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitcavage, Mark Anti-Defamation League Ohio State University Graduate School alumni Political science writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)