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What seem to be some of the common features of white nationalist and right-wing populist organizations and movements? What do you notice thus far about the significance of gender in white right politics? Your essay should incorporate and cite the film “White Noise” (screened in class), and all 3 of the required reserve readings from 1/22 (Bjork-James, American Nazi Party, and Minna Stern).You may include additional materials if you like, but must include all of the sources noted above to receive full credit. For written assignments, please use double-spacing, 12-point font, and insert page numbers. When citing materials, you may use any academic citation style (e.g. APA, MLA, ASA), as long as you use it consistently, and cite all materials you use. You may either use in-text citation with a bibliography, or you may use footnotes or endnotes instead. Uploads may be in PDF or Word only. Bruin Learn will not open documents uploaded in Pages, or other alternate word processing software.
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What We Stand
For
Race:
The union of all Aryans in North America.
We believe that the Aryan population of this continent should be
free, along with all the peoples of good will, to pursue its
separate destiny according to the principles of self-determination
and racial solidarity in a sovereign state representing its vital
needs and interests. We must have an all-White National Socialist
America; an America in which our children and our
grandchildren will play and go to school with other White
children; an America in which they will date and marry other
young people of our own race; an America in which all their
offspring will be beautiful, healthy White babies. We must have
an America in which our cultural, social, business and political
life is free of alien, Jewish influence; an America in which White
people are the sole masters of our own destiny.
Citizenship:
We demand that only those of Aryan blood be allowed to become
citizens of the state. Citizenship – and the rights which go along
with it – will be conferred only on those Aryans who prove
themselves worthy of it.
We believe that citizenship in an Aryan state should be an honor
and a privilege, rather than a right which is gratuitously bestowed
simply on the basis of birth or national residence, and that only
those Aryans who show themselves deserving of it, and who are
prepared to accept its accompanying responsibilities, should be
granted its rights and benefits.
Aryan Community:
We demand the organization of society into a racial community
which will embrace all Aryans, regardless of wealth or social
background. We further demand that the state fight to eliminate
every recognizable social evil and ensure social justice for every
member of the racial community, including the right to decent
housing, proper medical care and generous provision for old age.
We believe that a true community can function successfully only
as a unified, organic whole in which all members of society join
together in a great common cause and in turn are accorded
personal respect as well as equality of opportunity. We also
believe that every honest, hardworking citizen deserves to live
decently, with full protection against all foreseeable material
disasters beyond his control. Finally, we believe than an
enlightened community must make the health and well-being of
all its members a matter of prior concern, and that anything
which interferes with the smooth and harmonious functioning of
society must be ruthlessly suppressed – whether it be poverty,
social injustice, class warfare, crime, sexual perversion, drug
peddling, or any form of antisocial activity.
The Family Farm:
As the foundation of any society, we recognize the supreme
importance of a healthy farming community. Accordingly, we
demand protection of the family farm by eliminating speculation
in land and commodities, and by assuring a stable market and fair
prices for the farmer, as well as the consumer. We further demand
that qualified young Aryan couples be given an opportunity for
mortgage-free homesteading on land now held by large corporate
interests. We are against the destructive practices of industrial
factory farms that regularly engage in extreme animal cruelty and
greatly overuse antibiotics and hormones.
We believe that farming is more than a mere economic
proposition, that in fact it represents a way of life vital to the
community as a whole, and that its real value lies not only in
producing food, but in providing social, racial, and
environmental stability while serving as a constant source of
spiritual renewal for man in close rapport with nature. Hence, we
believe that a farmer’s land and the fruits of his labor must
remain inviolate and above commercial speculation and
exploitation, just as the economic viability of the family farm
must be re-established so that significantly larger numbers of our
people can once again find a good life upon the land.
Motherhood & Family:
We demand a strengthening of the family unit, as an
indispensable cornerstone of a healthy Aryan society. Towards
this goal, we further demand that Motherhood be elevated from
the position of low esteem which it occupies today to a position
where it is universally recognized as the noblest position to
which any Aryan woman can aspire.
We believe that a sound and orderly society requires a stable
family unit, with defined relationships between the sexes as well
as between parent and child. We also believe that Aryan men and
Aryan women have distinctive but complementary social roles to
play, and that just as the man is the natural breadwinner and
warrior, so the woman is the natural homemaker. We further
recognize the importance of the unique role that has been
assigned to the woman as the creator of the next generation of
racial life, and consequently believe that a special degree of
respect should be accorded to her as mother. Finally, we believe
that the man, as head of the household, should be able to provide
for his family without requiring his wife to abandon home and
children in order to compete in the job market out of economic
necessity.
A New Educational System:
We demand the establishment of a new educational system which
will place strong emphasis on the physical and moral
development of our young people, as well as on the training of
their mental abilities, and which will instill in every young Aryan
an all-important set of racial values.
We believe that Aryan youth represents the future of our Race,
and that in its fitness and ability lie our hopes for the future.
Therefore, we believe that it is the duty of the state to see to the
development of our young people in a thorough and wellrounded manner, recognizing that in the long run a healthy mind
can only dwell within a healthy body, and that along with the
training of the intellect there must go rigorous physical and
character training. We believe, finally, that an education can only
be considered complete when it succeeds in burning into the
heart and mind of the young Aryan the supreme importance of
the racial idea.
An Honest Economy:
We demand the creation of an honest, self-sufficient, debt-free
economy based solely on the productive capacity of the Aryan
worker, which will guarantee conditions of full employment and
price stability. We also demand public control of all banking and
credit institutions as well as all utilities and all monopolies,
confiscation of all conglomerate holdings, cancellation of all
usurious debt, comprehensive profit sharing in all basic
industries, and the institution of a national program of interestfree loans for families, farmers, and small businessmen.
We believe that the proper function of an economy is to serve the
economic needs of the people, not to make profits for big bankers
and huge multinational corporations. We must put an end to both
economic freeloading and economic exploitation in America.
There must be no place for parasites who draw their sustenance
from society without giving anything in return. We also believe
that HONEST WORK is the only legitimate basis for wealth –
not speculation, usury, or money-manipulation – and that a sound
economic system must rest, not on debt or some extraneous
metal, but on the productivity of the Aryan worker alone. We
believe further, that money is properly a medium of exchange
and store of value, not a commodity like bread or steel, and that
therefore money and credit should not be issued for profit, but to
serve the legitimate needs of the people without interest. Finally,
we believe that it is unnecessary for any rational society to suffer
unemployment when there is work to be done and people who
want jobs. We must have an economy based on the long-term
interests of the man who works for a living, not the chronic loafer
or the man who lives by renting out his capital.
Energy & Environment:
It is our goal that the Aryan republic be totally self-sufficient in
energy, and that the types of energy it employs be non-polluting.
Towards these ends, we demand a phasing out of all forms of
energy which befoul the environment, such as coal, petroleum,
and nuclear fission. To replace them, we demand an immediate
and massive program to develop new, CLEAN energy sources.
We believe that Aryans deserve to live in a healthy environment,
with clean air, clean water, and clean land. We also believe that
the responsible energy needs of our people must be met. At the
same time, we do not believe that the environment should be
sacrificed for quick profit, cheap economic growth, or an
extravagant, materialistic lifestyle. We believe in honoring, not
despoiling the natural world. We firmly believe that with the
wonderful resources of the North American continent at its
disposal, Aryan genius is fully capable of developing those
sources of energy we need – from the sun, the earth, the wind,
and the water – without disturbing the natural order.
We must make it an imperative duty of our government to protect
the gifts of nature that have been bestowed on America and to
ensure the maintenance of a clean, healthy, wholesome
environment for our people. We must not only eliminate
pollution and conserve our resources, but we must gradually
bring about a whole new mode of living in America, a mode with
less emphasis on forcing man into a mold determined by a
congested, neon-and-asphalt urban rat race and more emphasis
on changing that mold to fit the racial propensities of Aryan man.
Culture & Science:
We demand that the State encourage and promote every genuine
form of Aryan cultural expression. We also demand that the State
subsidize pure scientific research. We further demand the
removal of all alien influences from the cultural life of the Aryan
community, and the elimination of the cult of ugliness and
insanity known as “modern art” and “modern music” (For
example “rap”).
We believe that the highest freedom is the freedom of the Aryan
soul to express and manifest itself without interference through
works of creative genius. Toward this end, we believe that the
whole community must lend its enthusiastic and unstinting
support. We also believe that the State bears a special
responsibility to protect the racial soul from the harmful effects
of distorting alien influences – in art, literature, music, drama,
entertainment, education, and scientific inquiry – and to establish
those standards by which true Aryan character and ideals can be
reflected, and the questing spirit of our race expressed. We must
encourage and promote every form of genuine White cultural
endeavor and we must instill in our youth the appreciation for
beauty and order that characterize a genuine White man’s culture.
We must awaken a new understanding of our racial and cultural
heritage, so that the creative instincts of our people can once
again find expression in a direction which will continually renew
and enrich that heritage instead of degrading and debasing it.
Foreign Policy & Defense:
We demand a foreign policy based solely on the long-term
interests of the Aryan Race. In order to effectively pursue such a
policy, we demand the creation of a powerful military force
capable of defending the Aryan Republic against all aggressors.
Currently, America’s military forces all over the globe are
sucking our economy dry and serving special interests over the
interest of the people. We demand the withdrawal of all US
military presence from around the globe, and place our troops
instead at our borders to defend from foreign invasion. This will
free up tremendous resources for our Aryan Folk and allow our
soldiers to be home with their families with much greater
frequency. It will also mean a large reduction of our military
forces, since “policing (exploiting) the world” will no longer be
acceptable. We believe that the proper function of an Aryan
foreign policy is to serve the needs of our own people. We do not
believe that it should be our concern to tell other peoples and
countries how to live or manage their affairs, so long as they do
not threaten vital Aryan interests. We do believe, however, that
the Aryan Race has an inherent right to employ whatever means
may be necessary to ensure its safety and survival. Toward that
end, we believe that a resolute commitment to armed defense on
the part of every citizen is more important than the most
sophisticated weapons. At the same time, we believe that the
Aryan Republic should undertake to forge a fraternal community
of Aryan nations as a new force for order, stability, and
understanding in the world.
White Self Defense:
We must have an America in which White men and women can
live and work, in their homes and in the streets of our cities,
without fear. We must have a government which is not only a
guarantor of public order and safety and which preserves the
right of White citizens to keep and to bear arms, which is the
ancient hallmark of a truly free people, but we must have
government which maintains an eternal vigilance against the
enemies, both internal and external, of a White America. Every
tendency towards degeneracy and subversion, every threat to our
racial integrity, every form of organized crime and vice, every
element which threatens public terror or chaos must be weeded
out and utterly destroyed.
A Better Race:
We demand that the state aggressively strive for the continual
betterment of the Aryan Race through positive eugenic measures
especially by encouraging propagation of the highest racial
elements within the Aryan Republic. We also demand that steps
be taken to halt the spread of hereditary defects and racially
impure blood within the gene pool of the racial community.
We believe that our most precious assets are our racial resources.
We believe that these resources provide the basis for all true
progress and must not only be preserved, but culled and
improved. We do not believe that Man has reached the upper
limits of his development, but believe that through intelligent
breeding it is possible for him to attain the full potential which he
has been allotted. We further believe that in the Nordic ideal we
share a common vision of the direction in which our race must
evolve, just as in the elevation of mankind to a nobler height we
see a challenge which is worthy of the finest idealism of every
member of the racial community.
We must make it our most sacred task to ensure the betterment
and safeguard the future of our race. We must learn to place a
higher value on the quality of our people than of our gadgets. We
must determine that each generation of our people will be of a
higher quality than the one before. We must take measures to
emphasize in our children and grandchildren the best qualities of
our people today and to eliminate their flaws and their
weaknesses. To accomplish this aim we must be willing to put
our duties to future generations of our race ahead of the selfish
whims of the present.
A Spiritual Rebirth:
We demand that the state take an active part in the spiritual life of
the racial community. Our people must be turned away from the
present path of materialism, cynicism, and egoism and become
inspired by racial idealism and a rebirth of traditional Aryan
spiritual values.
We believe that the material life of a healthy, organic society is
inseparable from its spiritual life. Therefore, we believe that the
state bears an obligation to minister to the spiritual, as well as to
the material needs of the racial community. We also believe that
the unity and cohesion of a people rests on its having a common
set of values and ideals which can shape its moral outlook and
provide the basis for its lifestyle and culture. We further believe
that Aryans must find their spiritual roots in the depths of their
own racial soul, rather than in the traditions and values of another
race. Finally, we believe that our people must once again come to
recognize and respect those immutable laws of nature, which our
Creator has bestowed on us. Only through a spiritual rebirth of
our people can we achieve the profound reorientation which is a
prerequisite for building a healthy racial community.
Special Issue: Gender and Far-Right Nationalism
Gender and the Far-right in
the United States: Female
Extremists and the
Mainstreaming of
Contemporary White
Nationalism
Journal of Modern European History
2022, Vol. 20(3) 322–334
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/16118944221110101
journals.sagepub.com/home/meh
Alexandra Minna Stern
University of Michigan, USA
Abstract
This article explores gender and the far-right in the United States with specific attention to female actors and
gendered ideologies in the realms of culture and media. By focusing on several female extremists, I show how
traditional and rigid ideas of home, marriage, family and community bolster the xenophobia and racism of
white nationalism in the United States. This article includes a historical overview of the concept of metapolitics and emphasizes its centrality to the mainstreaming of the contemporary far-right. I suggest that the internet and social media have become the far-right’s premier metapolitical spaces, which can help to explain both
the normalization of white nationalism and the unique role of female extremists. Several case studies of farright women elucidate how gender norms are performed online, and how they reinforce anxious narratives
of white erasure and victimhood, while fomenting antagonism towards feminism, globalism and multiculturalism. This article explores how female actors are galvanizing white nationalism in the United States, as they
build on earlier eras of far-right activism and amplify the far-right via social media.
Keywords
Far-right, gender, female extremists, social media, metapolitics, culture, white nationalism, United States
In the summer of 2019, the farmer’s market in the liberal midwestern college town of Bloomington,
Indiana was shuttered for several weeks after vendors and customers learned that the Schooner
Corresponding author:
Alexandra Minna Stern, Departments of American Culture, History and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of
Michigan, 500 South State Street, 2256 LSA, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1382, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Stern
323
Creek Farm vegetable stall was run by white nationalists.1 Information about Schooner Creek
Farm’s far-right affiliations had surfaced earlier in the summer, when journalists and watchdog
groups discovered that the married couple in charge of the farm was friends with a self-identified
neo-Nazi indicted on charges of painting a swastika on a nearby synagogue, affiliated with the (now
defunct) extremist group Identity Evropa, and had been in close contact with the organizers of the
‘Unite the Right’ rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.2 These revelations also indicated
that it was the wife, Sarah Dye, who was the more visible and vocal white nationalist of the pair.
Dye took to local television to deny accusations of white supremacy, even as she appeared concurrently on far-right media venues, such as Red Ice TV, to defend her viewpoints, and attack the left
and feminism, stating at one point that she ‘kind of woke up to traditional values’ several years
before.3 As of the finalization of this article in 2022, Sarah Dye is highly active in white nationalist
circles, and contributes to online forums and interviews using the name ‘Volkmom’ and the handle
@BraveVasalisa. Recently she and another female white nationalist who uses the pseudonym
Karissa [no last name], launched the YouTube channel, Hearth & Helm, where they discuss and
showcase their conservative homesteading values and lifestyles.4 According to them, Hearth &
Helm ‘exists to inspire and revitalize our folk by sharing our thoughts, ideas and life experiences
from a feminine, holistic, conservative and primal perspective.’5 Dye has become a spokeswoman
for what some scholars term the ‘trad life,’ or the traditional lifestyle, that rejects feminism, urban
living and multiculturalism, and instead revers patriarchy, heteronormativity, organic farming and
homeschooling; all carried out to ensure, in Dye’s words, the well-being of ‘white European descended people.’6
Recent scholarship on the ‘trad life’ and ‘trad wives’ elucidates how the illiberalism and extremism of the contemporary far-right is undergirded and advanced by rigid gender ideologies that are
enacted both online and in real life.7 These ideologies and lived practices are rooted in strict gender
binaries, which extremists refer to sanguinely as ‘gender complementarity,’ a construct predicated
on the belief that nature and/or God made men valiant protectors and leaders, and made women
caretakers and breeders. As scholar Annie Kelly has argued, ‘shield maidens’ like Sarah Dye
and Karissa cultivate a ‘hyperfeminine aesthetic’ to ‘mask the authoritarianism of their ideology.’8
They are indispensable recruiters and evangelists for the far-right, working to normalize extremism
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
J. Healy, ‘Amid the Kale and Corn, Fears of White Supremacy at the Farmers’ Market’, New York Times, 18 August
2019. Accessed on 20 August 2021 at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/18/us/indiana-farmers-market-whitesupremacy.html.
No Space for Hate, ‘Volkmom, Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement, and the Safety of Our Community’, no
date, accessed 10 August 2021 at https://nospace4hate.btown-in.org/report/.
A. Pinsker, ‘Sarah Dye Doubles Down On ’Identitarian’ Ideals In YouTube Interview’, Indiana Public Media, 29
August 2019, accessed 20 July 2021, at https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/sarah-dye-does-interview-with-whitenationalist-red-ice-tv.php; and K. Sullivan, ‘Controversial Bloomington farmers’ market vendor denies white supremacy accusations’, Fox 59 Indiana, accessed 20 July 2021 at https://fox59.com/news/controversial-bloomingtonfarmers-market-vendor-denies-white-supremacy-accusations/.
See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uTqdHuVasudYJQjKXsoJw.
See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uTqdHuVasudYJQjKXsoJw/about.
Quotes taken from Hearth & Helm, interview with PhilosophiCat, ‘On Femininity, Gender Roles, Reaching Our
Potential, Julius Evola, & More w/PhilosophiCat,’ accessed on 10 August 2021 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=fEfV2NhmDbQ.
On the ‘trad life’, see S. Darby, Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism, New York
2020 and T. Lavin, Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, New York 2020.
A. Kelly, ‘The Housewives of White Supremacy’, New York Times, 1 June 2018, Access 20 July 2021 at https://www.
nytimes.com/2018/06/01/opinion/sunday/tradwives-womenalt-right.html.
324
Journal of Modern European History 20(3)
through the tropes of marriage, family and motherhood, and can serve as gateways to radicalization
or what the far-right has called ‘red pilling.’9
This article explores the activism and ideologies of female extremists in an effort to better understand the interplay of gender and the far-right in the United States today. Drawing from the work of
historian of terrorism Kristy Campion, who has proposed six forms of participation for female
extremists – violent actors, thinkers, facilitators, promoters, activists and gendered exemplars for
others – this article shows how a new generation of women engage directly in all but the first
form (violent action).10 They are expanding the ideological terrain of white nationalism, by broadcasting their domestic personas on social media, and modelling how traditional femininity can
counteract and potentially reverse ‘white erasure’.
In order to situate these female extremists in historical context, this article begins by providing a
broad overview of the rise of nationalism and populism in the 21st century, which in the United
States has manifested principally in the ascendance of white nationalism and white identity politics.
The article then shifts to a discussion of the importance of the concept of metapolitics to white
nationalists, tracing the emergence of this term and examining its centrality to far-right ideas of
culture change. This section argues that social media has become the premier space for far-right
metapolitics today, and is a cultural arena uniquely positioned for the propagation of gendered
ideologies and the activism of female extremists. The final section provides several illustrative
case studies of far-right women, including additional depth on Sarah Dye and Hearth & Helm,
an examination of the Christian nationalist Lacey Lynn, and decoding of the neo-Nazi memes of
‘Vampress Wife’ on the platform Gab. This part also highlights the performative roles of ‘trad
wives,’ like Lana Lokteff and Brittany Pettibone, who are married to prominent European male
extremists. I will argue that a new generation of women have played an integral role in the
ascent of the far-right in the United States, and that their success is due, at least in part, to their
ability to navigate the often misogynistic realm of the internet by hewing to highly demarcated feminine and domestic roles that reflect and reinforce the expectations and norms of ‘gender
complementarity.’
This article utilizes the terms far-right, extremism and white nationalism to describe the actors
and ideas that have gained ground in the United States over the past two decades. Although these
terms have nuanced meanings, they define a patchworked movement that is ardently opposed to
liberalism, democracy, egalitarianism and multiculturalism. In the United States, extremism interlocks with racism and intensifying demographic anxieties about the imminent and projected loss of
a white majority population in the country. Given that many far-right actors do not use their actual
or full names, some of the female extremists studied here are denoted by their pseudonyms, social
media handles, or avatars.
1. The 21st-century context: From metapolitics to insurrection
One of the most significant trends of the early 21st century has been the marked rise of the far-right
across the globe. By the early 2000s, the era of globalism and neoliberalism that characterized the
post-Cold War and Glasnost era was giving way to populism and nationalism.11 The 2008
N. C. Love, ‘Shield Maidens, Fashy Femmes, TradWives: Feminism, Patriarchy, and Right-Wing Populism’, in:
Frontiers in Sociology 5 (2020), 619572; and A. Mattheis, ‘Shieldmaidens of Whiteness: (Alt) Maternalism and
Women Recruiting for the Far/Alt-Right’, in: Journal for Deradicalization 17 (2018/2019), 128–162.
10. K. Campion, ‘Women in the Extreme and Radical Right: Forms of Participation and Their Implications’, in: Social
Sciences 9 (2020) 9, 1–20.
11. R. Eatwell/M. Goodwin, National Populism. The Liberal Revolt against Democracy, London 2018.
9.
Stern
325
economic recession, which reverberated around the world, spurred calls for economic protectionism
and fiscal austerity. At the same time, civil and political strife in the Global South contributed to
mounting numbers of refugees and asylees seeking out, often at great personal cost and physical
risk, safety in the Global North. These migrants arrived via land and sometimes rickety boat,
hoping to avail themselves of policies informed by civil and human rights. However, increasingly
these arrivals were shunned by citizens afraid of changing racial demographics and the possibility
of diminishing economic opportunities and welfare support.12 In the United States, resentment
against globalism, foreigners and multiculturalism translated into aggrieved assertations of victimization and discrimination from whites, who lamented a perceived loss of primordial cultural and
racial (‘blood and soil’) identity and rallied around ideas ‘white extinction’ and ‘white erasure’.13
Cas Mudde, author of multiple books on the far-right in the United States and Europe, has
described these patterns as emblematic of the ‘fourth wave’ of far-right mobilization. Mudde
notes that the most distinguishing features of this wave, when compared to previous waves since
the Second World War, are its heterogeneity and the extent to which extremism has been mainstreamed. 14 As Mudde and other scholars attest, this wave poses a monumental threat to liberal
democracy and its foundational principles of equality and civil and human rights. The ascendancy
of the ‘fourth wave’ can be explained partly by the synergistic convergence of the contemporary
far-right with populism, above all, a form of jingoistic, exclusionary nationalism.
Modern history shows that populism can lean to the left or to the right, but since the 2000s, it
overwhelmingly has taken the form of xenophobic and tribalistic nationalism. This 21st-century
populism shares many elements with early 20th-century fascism, but this is not an instance of
history repeating itself in identical fashion. There are differences between the fascism of the
1930s and contemporary far-right nationalism; moreover, histories of migration, decolonization,
civil rights and technological innovation have created the conditions for distinct forms of far-right
politics and activism.15 In the United States, for example, Donald Trump’s exclusionary populism relied largely on a white identity politics that is anti-immigrant and nostalgic for the
racial apartheid of the 1950s, as encapsulated in the adage ‘Make America Great Again.’
During the Trump presidency from 2016 to 2020, this populism became louder and uglier. It consolidated into a visible brand of extremism. The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol of 6 January 2021
confirmed the emboldened and extensive presence of the far-right in the country. Participants in
that siege consisted of a mixture of seemingly ordinary, if diehard conservative, people who distrust the government, worship Trump, and are convinced – despite no evidence – that the 2020
presidential election was stolen, as well as hard-core paramilitary groups and actors, who want
to tear down the existing political structure.16
There were multiple pathways and historical contingencies that led to the insurrection, and for
many observers, the scene of an angry mob scaling walls, breaking windows and storming the halls
12. S. Polakow-Suransky, Go Back to Where You Came From. The Backlash against Immigration and the Fate of Western
Democracy, New York 2017; J. R. Kraut, Threat of Dissent. A History of Ideological Exclusion and Deportation in the
United States, Cambridge 2020.
13. A. Jardina, White Identity Politics, Cambridge 2019.
14. C. Mudde, The Far Right Today, Cambridge 2019.
15. F. Finchelstein, From Fascism to Populism in History, Berkeley 2018; G. Eley, ‘Where is Fascism and Where does it
Come from?’, in: History Workshop Journal 91 (2021), 1–28; also see A. Petö, ‘Parallel Stories: The Rise of Far-right
Women’s Movements in the 1930s and 2010s’, in: J. Rayner et al. (eds.), Back to the ‘30s? Recurring Crises of
Capitalism, Liberalism, and Democracy, Cham 2020, 277–291.
16. NPR Staff, ‘The Capitol Siege: The Cases Behind The Biggest Criminal Investigation In U.S. History,’ first published 9
February 2021, and updated regularly, last updated 3 September 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/02/09/965472049/
the-capitol-siege-the-arrested-and-their-stories (accessed 4 September 2021).
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Journal of Modern European History 20(3)
of congress came as a shock. Yet for scholars of the far-right and white nationalism in the United
States, there was a long, winding backstory to that tumultuous and violent day. Indeed, understanding the escalating rise of white nationalism in the United States requires attention to the emergence
of the alternative right or ‘alt-right’ movement in the 2010s, and specifically, its embrace of ‘metapolitics,’ a concept first elaborated by the French New Right in response to what it interpreted as the
depravities and decadence of the 1968 generation.17 Although this term has a historical etymology
that reaches back to 19th-century European philosophy, it moved into the political lexicon in the
late 1960s, when French New Right thinkers such as Alain de Benoist seized upon ‘metapolitics’
to describe an approach that eschewed institutional politics and instead sought to win ‘hearts and
minds’. ‘Metapolitics’ reflected the French New Right’s disdain for the 1960s counterculture
while staking out a firm distance from the idioms of fascism or National Socialism, which were
off limits legally and politically.
Rather than trying to secure political representation through orthodox means like electoral politics, Benoist and the French New Right believed that energies were better spent influencing cultural
domains, for instance, by organizing book clubs.18 One of the great ir
