A terrifying tour of the history and influence of international neo-fascists, Against the Fascist Creep maps the connections and names the names, showing how infiltration is a conscious and clandestine program for white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups.
As the election of Donald Trump shows, fascism in all its white nationalist and “alt-right” permutations is alive and well in the United States. A terrifying tour of the history and influence of the forces that helped bring the 45th president to power, Against the Fascist Creep maps the connections and names the names. It traces today’s often-disguised forms of rightwing extremism through the decades and across the globe to show how infiltration is a conscious and clandestine program for neofascist groups that seek to co-opt and undermine both the mainstream and the new social movements of the left.
This book is a line in the sand that both identifies the creep of fascist messages, ideas, and organization throughout our society and outlines how to stop it in its tracks.
Praise for Against the Fascist Creep
“A comprehensive overview of the history and space of fascist ideologies and their current transformations.”
—Marlene Laruelle, author of Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire
“The notion of ‘the fascist creep’ helps us to understand how fascist ideals migrate from left to right and right to left and how they surreptitiously slip into the heart of the body politic. This book is essential reading.”
—Tamir Bar-On, author of Where Have All the Fascists Gone?
“Against the Fascist Creep could not come at a better time. Society is trying to understand the kinds of fascist elements we are seeing in the 21st Century, and this book not only tells a detailed history of fascism around the world, breaking down all its forms to an exact science, it does the most important thing that you will not see much of in other books that cover the subject—it shows the reader how they have been and can be fought.”
—Daryle Lamont Jenkins, One People’s Project
“Recent historiographical fashion has tended to portray fascism as a revolutionary form of authoritarian nationalist ideology. However, fascism’s attempt to synthesize left and right could produce conservative as well as radical mutations. Alexander Reid Ross’s book helps us understand how fascism in the contemporary era is developing in this complex way, and raises vital issues about how it differs from the rising tide of national populism.”
—Roger Eatwell, author of Fascism: A History
“Crucial reading for scholars and journalists trying to understand the complex and often contradictory relationships among populism, anti-elite demagoguery, scapegoating, conspiracism, and fascism.”
—Chip Berlet, co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America
“Against the Fascist Creep is a much-needed addition to the field of political extremism and will be enjoyed by both academics and the general public.”
—George Michael, author of Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance
"For politically engaged readers, Against the Fascist Creep shows again how postmodernity opened a space whereby truth is constructed as a mean . . . .Against the Fascist Creep is a necessary volume, especially as right-wing dialectical manipulations are now common."
—Andrew Kettler, Journal for the Study of Radicalism
Against the Fascist Creep, written by the US-based journalist and antifascist Alexander Reid Ross, is comprehensive, international, and historical, a wide-ranging overview of fascist interconnections within the left. Well documented and annotated, it draws from previous scholarship, blogs, websites, the author’s own knowledge of the fascist scene, and interviews... The book is rewarding for the reader in search of the continuities in fascist ideologies, strategies, and practices, as well as links between fascists throughout the centuries."
—Luce Dubois, H-Socialisms
"Reid Ross’s newest volume is an excellent and disconcerting study of fascism’s origins, development, present and possible futures. Against the Fascist Creep deserves the broadest possible audience. Hopefully, it can help to inspire a new mass movement to resist all authoritarian ideologies, whether emanating from the State or the “autonomous” grassroots."
—Javier Sethness, Truthout
"By connecting the dots and naming the names between fascist movements of the past and present, Ross' book is an urgent read for those keeping a watchful eye on the state of the world."
—Kirbie Bennett, The Indy Online
"Against the Fascist Creep is a great book for understanding fascism and for appreciating the dangers of being drawn into it without noticing."
—Gabriel Kuhn, Alpine Anarchist Productions and LeftTwoThree
Alexander Reid Ross is a lecturer at Portland State University, freelance journalist, and the editor of Grabbing Back: Essays Against the Global Land Grab.