Making Sense of the Alt-Right

by George Hawley

Overview

Durgaing the 2016 election, a new term entered the mainstream American political lexicon: “alt-right,” short for “alternative right.” Despite the innocuous name, the alt-right is a white-nationalist movement. Yet it differs from earlier racist groups: it is youthful and tech savvy, obsessed with provocation and trolling, amorphous, predominantly online, and mostly anonymous. And it was energized by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. In Making Sense of the Alt-Right, George Hawley provides an accessible introduction and gives vital perspective on the emergence of a group whose overt racism has confounded expectations for a more tolerant America.

Hawley explains the movement’s origins, evolution, methods, and core belief in white-identity politics. The book explores how the alt-right differs from traditional white nationalism, libertarianism, and other online illiberal ideologies such as neoreaction, as well as from mainstream Republicans and even Donald Trump and Steve Bannon. The alt-right’s use of offensive humor and its trolling-driven approach, based in animosity to so-called political correctness, can make it difficult to determine true motivations. Yet through exclusive interviews and a careful study of the alt-right’s influential texts, Hawley is able to paint a full picture of a movement that not only disagrees with liberalism but also fundamentally rejects most of the tenets of American conservatism. Hawley points to the alt-right’s growing influence and makes a case for coming to a precise understanding of its beliefs without sensationalism or downplaying the movement’s radicalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231185134
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	07/16/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

George Hawley is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Voting and Migration Patterns in the U.S. (2013), White Voters in Twenty-First Century America (2014), and Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism (2016).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Alt-Right’s Goals and Predecessors
2. The First Wave of the Alt-Right
3. The Alt-Right Returns
4. The Alt-Right Attack on the Conservative Movement
5. The Alt-Right and the 2016 Election
6. The “Alt-Lite”
Conclusion
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

A slim, neatly focused work that attempts to define the radical new movement.

New Statesman

Valuable accounts of a movement that [the author] has studied in depth.

Inside Higher Ed

Vital for understanding our times.

Urban Daddy

Making Sense of the Alt-Right understands alt-right thinking from the inside. George Hawley's erudition on the subject is evident. The work is supple in tracing out the lineage and development of the movement against the conservative establishment and in explaining its present incarnation in the form of the alt-right.

Lawrence Rosenthal

07/10/2017
A scholarly analysis of a leaderless, largely online movement devoted to white nationalism is a tricky undertaking, but Hawley (Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism), a political science professor, makes a game try in this slim volume. He acknowledges the challenge of understanding a vulgar, racist movement that “rejects... basic American values” and “indicates that a ‘postracial America’ is farther off than most people—liberal and conservative—have long hoped.” He provides a straightforward, plausible history of the “identitarian” antecedents to today’s amorphous “alt-right” phenomenon. Crucially, Hawley writes, the alt-right is not part of the traditional American conservative movement, which it views as its current main opponent, as establishment conservatives are too religious and ideologically inclusive and, once in office, they are too unwilling to fight for the policies they suggested to capitalize on white voter anxiety, such as curbing immigration or ending affirmative action. Hawley’s observation, while trying to grasp how the “alt-right” came to prominence, that “the organized conservative movement is at the nadir of its existence, despite the GOP’s electoral dominance,” is telling. So is his observation that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign speech assailing the movement supplied oxygen to fan its flames and broaden its exposure. What comes next remains unclear, but Hawley’s survey represents a good early effort at understanding a strange time in American politics. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

George Hawley’s fine new book is one of the first accounts of the rise of a new radical political ideology. It’s an important contribution to scholarship about extremism, digital communication, and contemporary American political culture. It’s also a good read, packed with interesting anecdotes about right-wing intellectual infighting and the online community of the alt-right. All serious followers of American politics today will want to read it.

Thomas J. Main

Making Sense of the Alt-Right is clearly written, insightful, and impressively documented, getting the reader genuinely close to the essence of this amorphous movement. I know of no other work that does nearly as good a job of dealing with the alt-right, and I suspect that this will become the "go-to" work on the movement for students, politicians, and serious readers alike.

Michael Barkun

WHY READ IT? A good, short (222 pages) primer to help understand the political forces responsible for Charlottesville (and the election of Donald Trump as president).

Hollywood Reporter

For anyone trying to figure out how to appeal to the exasperated while maintaining hard boundaries against white supremacists, an important book...

Times Literary Supplement - Joan C. Williams

In Making Sense of the Alt-Right, Hawley does what he set out to do: exploring deep into the heart of the alt-right and its origins, ideology, and political influence.

Political Science Quarterly

Suddenly, everyone claims to be an expert on the white-nationalist reboot, but Hawley actually is. His deep knowledge makes this the most thorough guide to the movement yet.

New York Magazine

I am no fan of the term “alt-right,” but an academic study of this much-hyped movement was well overdue, and George Hawley was the only one who could make at least some sense of them. Recommended reading!

Cas Mudde

Richly deserves to be read.

Counter Currents

09/15/2017
Hawley (political science, Univ. of Alabama) attempts to explain the ideology and appeal of the white nationalist movement referring to itself as the "alt-right" in American politics. A scholar of American conservatism, the author was caught by surprise by the "meteoric rise" of the groups supporting this movement and the energy it received from Donald Trump's presidential campaign. He explores the influence of white nationalist movements and traces the intellectual roots of such organizations found in the "paleo-conservative" writings of Paul Gottfried and others. In this regard, this book can be seen as a sequel to Hawley's Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism, with much of its assessment revolving around the movement's attack on traditional conservatism, as well as on the religious right. Hawley asserts that the movement "rejects liberty and equality as ideals" and describes provocative tactics used by those such as Richard Spencer, Mike Cernovich, and Milo Yiannopoulos. He devotes an entire chapter to its role in the 2016 election and the support of the "alt-lite"—right-wing populists who do not fully embrace extremist positions. Hawley speculates that increasing online censorship of "alt-right" views could diminish its effectiveness in U.S. politics but does not see the movement fading in the near future. VERDICT An important contribution to contemporary political discourse that sheds light on a disturbingly influential group in American politics.—Thomas Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA

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