Given the heightened national interest in internal security, this is a timely account of one of the most obscure features of American’s military system, the “state defense forces” or “state guards.” Created in the period of World War I so that states would have reserve military force for emergencies when their National Guard had been called into service, state guards have existed –and still exist -- in about half the states, and have rendered service on many occasions during emergencies and disasters, while providing security to vital installations. The American Home Guard is particularly useful for its treatment of the increased national interest in state defense forces during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the disastrous impact the creation of the illegal right-wing “militias” had on the institution. A valuable work