Alt-America
The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
15
The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
The story of the remarkable resurgence of right-wing extremists in the United States Just as Donald Trump’s victorious campaign for the US presidency shocked the world, the seemingly sudden national prominence of white supremacists, xenophobes, militia leaders, and mysterious “alt-right” figures mystifies many. But the American extreme right has been growing steadily in number and influence since the 1990s with the rise of patriot militias. Following 9/11, conspiracy theorists found fresh life; and in virulent reaction to the first black US president, militant racists have come out of the woodwork. Nurtured by a powerful right-wing media sector in radio, TV, and online, the far right, Tea Party movement conservatives, and Republican activists found common ground. Figures such as Stephen Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Alex Jones, once rightly dismissed as cranks, now haunt the reports of mainstream journalism. Investigative reporter David Neiwert has been tracking extremists for more than two decades. In Alt-America, he provides a deeply researched and authoritative report on the growth of fascism and far-right terrorism, the violence of which in the last decade has surpassed anything inspired by Islamist or other ideologies in the United States. The product of years of reportage, and including the most in-depth investigation of Trump’s ties to the far right, this is a crucial book about one of the most disturbing aspects of American society.
Reviews with the most likes.
It's surprising how far back Neiwert starts this book, but it makes sense. Movements built on eliminationism, misogyny and racism have been around for a long time. In this context, Neiwert is able to illustrate that extreme right-wing movements have always helped skew American political discourse and theory towards extremism even as the fringe championing it was publicly denounced.
What you have as a result is more of a historical look at the ingredients that constructed and fueled the rise of the Alt-Right and it makes Neiwert's analysis far more useful and interesting than shallower reads such as Angela Nagle's Kill all Normies. The “this” of the proverbial rant against pro-Trump/Fascist political forces is not just a sudden radicalization or disaffection of the right. Neiwert gives you two big tools: history and analysis of authoritarian psychology to explain the appeal that extermination, hatred of women and fear of minorities will always hold in a country where the right-wing traditionally absorbs such sentiment as almost normative.
