American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate

Politics & Current Affairs

By Pete Simi

Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield

American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate

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Description

The authors draw on more than a decade of research and interviews, from the infamous Hayden Lake Aryan compound in Northern Idaho, to private homes in Los Angeles, to hate music concerts around the country.

 

Through descriptive case studies, Simi and Futrell examine hate in the home, talking with parents who aim to raise “little Hitlers” and discussing the impact home schooling and cultural isolation can have on children. The authors also describe Aryan crash pads, Bible studies and rituals. They take readers through the hate music scene from underground bars to massive rallies, examining how the Internet has shaped communication and created disturbing new virtual communities.

Since I was young I’ve wondered how a person could commit their life to hating other people. Since then I’ve read a lot about why people join hate groups. This is an important question but my co-author and I decided to focus on a slightly different issue. We wrote this book to help explain how people keep these groups going once they become involved. We also wanted to give readers some firsthand views of the world of white supremacists. We felt this was important because too often people don’t want to take these groups seriously and would rather write their members off as insignificant buffoons.