Jeffrey Kaplan (historian)

Kaplan was born March 23, 1954, in Denver, Colorado, to parents Arthur and Shyrle Gladstone Kaplan. He had one younger brother.^[1][2]

He earned an M.A. in Linguistics from Colorado State University in 1981, an M.A. in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University) in 1989, and earned a Ph.D. in the history of culture from the University of Chicago in 1993.^[3][4] His PhD thesis was titled "Revolutionary Millenarianism in the Modern World: From Christian Identity to Gush Emunim".^[5]

Kaplan was an associate professor of history at Iḷisaġvik College in Utqiagvik, Alaska.^[6] Kaplan was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Research Grant for a project on "The Emergence of a Violent Euro-American Radical Right" with Leonard Weinberg.^[7]

Kaplan occupied the Bicentennial Fulbright Chair in American Studies at the University of Helsinki in Finland from 1998 to 1999.^[8] He was an associate professor of religion at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh and a member of the board of academic advisors of the university's Institute for the Study of Religion, Violence and Memory.^[9] As of 2019, he was a professor of security studies at the King Fahd Security College in Saudi Arabia.^[10]

Kaplan formerly sat on the editorial boards of the journals Terrorism and Political Violence, Nova Religio and The Pomegranate.^[4][9]

Kaplan authored several books during his career.^[11] His first authored book, Radical Religion in America, was published in 1997 by Syracuse University Press.^[12][13][14] In 1998, he co-authored a volume on similar subjects with Leonard Weinberg, The Emergence of a Euro-American Radical Right.^[15][16][17] In 2000, his Encyclopedia of White Power was published by AltaMira Press.^[18][19][20]

In 2010, he wrote Terrorist Groups and the New Tribalism: Terrorism's Fifth Wave, where he argues that at the time society was experiencing the "Fifth Wave" of terrorism.^[21] Apocalypse, Revolution, and Terrorism was published in 2019.^[10][22][23] He also edited several books. He coedited Nation and Race with Tore Bjørgo in 1998, on the Euro-American racist movement,^[24][25][26] and edited The Cultic Milieu with Heléne Lööw.^[27]

Kaplan was married and had one stepson. He died on March 12, 2025, in Charlotte, North Carolina, from complications of leukemia. He was aged 70.^[2][4][11]

• —— (June 1993). Revolutionary Millenarianism in the Modern World: From Christian Identity to Gush Emunim (PhD thesis). University of Chicago. OCLC 29286137.
• —— (1997). Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0396-7.
• ——; Bjørgo, Tore, eds. (1998). Nation and Race: The Developing Euro-American Racist Subculture. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-332-9.
• ——; Weinberg, Leonard (1998). The Emergence of a Euro-American Radical Right. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-2563-2.
• ——, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. ISBN 0-7425-0340-2.
• —— (2000). Beyond the Mainstream: The Emergence of Religious Pluralism in Finland, Estonia, and Russia. Helsinki: SKS. ISBN 95-1746-180-1.
• ——; Lööw, Heléne, eds. (2002). The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. ISBN 0-7591-0203-1.
• ——, ed. (2002). Millennial Violence: Past, Present and Future. London; Portland: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-5294-6.
• Taylor, Bron; ——, eds. (2005). The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. London; New York: Thoemmes Continuum. ISBN 1-84371-138-9.
• —— (2010). Terrorist Groups and the New Tribalism: Terrorism's Fifth Wave. Abingdon; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-45338-7.
• —— (2015). Radical Religion and Violence: Theory and Case Studies. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-81414-0.
• ——; Lööw, Heléne; Malkki, Leena, eds. (2015). Lone Wolf and Autonomous Cell Terrorism. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-85122-1.
• —— (2019). Apocalypse, Revolution and Terrorism: From the Sicari to the American Revolt against the Modern World. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-48365-1.
• —— (2020). The Alt-Right Movement: White Nationalism in the Twenty-First Century. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4408-7118-4.
• Shaffer, Ryan; ——, eds. (2020). The Legacy of 9/11: Transformations of Policing, Intelligence, and Counter-Terrorism. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-03-263710-5.
• —— (2021). A Deep Dive into the Meaning and Impact of January 6 Capitol Insurrection. Abu Dhabi: TRENDS Research and Advisory. ISBN 978-9948-84608-6.
• —— (2022). From Leaderless Resistance to Streaming Video Strikes: The Evolution of Lone Wolf Terrorism. Abu Dhabi: TRENDS Research and Advisory. ISBN 978-9948-04393-5.
• ——, ed. (2022). Anti-Semitism in Hungary: Appearance and Reality, Volume 1. Reno: Helena History Press. ISBN 978-1-943596-27-0.
• ——, ed. (2023). Anti-Semitism in Hungary: Appearance and Reality, Volume 2. Reno: Helena History Press. ISBN 978-1-943596-29-4.
• —— (2025). The Early Israeli Settler Movement: The Birth Pangs of Gush Emunim. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-04-011371-4.