ABSTRACT
The history and ideas of James Mason and Siege are inseparable from the origins of neo-Nazism in the United States. At age 14, he joined the original American Nazi Party of George Lincoln Rockwell. But more important to Mason’s ideas were the events of the 1970s after Rockwell was assassinated and the party had been renamed the National Socialist White People’s Party (NSWPP). The new leader, Matthias Koehl, alienated many members and numerous groups splintered off in the first half of the decade. These newly independent neo-Nazis were not sure what direction they should head in. Mason himself left the party in 1976, and his interactions with the other former NSWPP members helped lead Mason to formulate the new ideas which would come to maturity in Siege.
