A New Golden Age for Heterodox Books on Race?
Peter Bradley
March 11, 2024
Peter Brimelow refers to an “interglacial” period in the 1990s when taboo books on race were released by mainstream publishers. Titles such as Paved With Good Intentions, The Bell Curve, Alien Nation, Why Race Matters, Race, Evolution and Behavior, and Hating Whitey are some of the books that challenged racial orthodoxy yet were still published, reviewed, and often sold in major bookstores during the 1990s. Of course, the thaw eventually ended, and by the end of the decade, the publishing industry again began silencing dissidents. By 2011, Jared Taylor, unable to find a publisher for his book White Identity, concluded: “[T]his book is unfit for commercial publication in the United States.” Eventually self-published, it was banned from Amazon.
But a spate of books released in the last 12 months — mostly by mainstream sources — suggests a pushback against anti-white policies and attitudes that plague every Western institution. Some of these works have made the bestseller lists and have been promoted on a growing web of dissident podcasts, publications, and social media accounts. None call outright for white advocacy, but they all acknowledge that anti-whiteness is a major factor in American life. Most of these books have been reviewed in American Renaissance and are summarized below.
Pushing back
America’s Cultural Revolution by Chris Rufo argues that left-wing activists waged a successful war on America and now control all of its institutions. The result is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Critical Race Theory (CRT), and other anti-white propaganda being pushed on everyone, including school children. Mr. Rufo urges a “counter revolution” against leftist domination, and he has become a leading activist in that movement, even exposing the plagiarism of Harvard’s anti-white president, Claudine Gay. America’s Cultural Revolution was published by Broadside Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, and it became a number-one Amazon bestseller upon its release in July 2023.
When Race Trumps Merit by Heather Mac Donald was released by DW Books, a new publishing arm of the conservative Daily Wire media empire. Miss Mac Donald discusses the racial madness that has been inflicted upon the United States since the May 2020 George Floyd riots. Her book focuses mostly on how BLM-style propaganda infests medicine, science, the fine arts, law, and justice. She contends that whites are debasing themselves before blacks to the point of staying silent about anti-white policies and black incompetence, even if they know these hurt their company, organization, or nation. The author advocates telling the truth about race. She also suggests forming a membership organization dedicated to an “unapologetic defense of color-blind standards of achievement and behavior [that] would relentlessly provide the data that explain the lack of racial proportionality in meritocratic institutions and the criminal justice system.”
The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics by Richard Hanania was published by Broadside Books. Mr. Hanania survived a doxing campaign by leftists when it was discovered he had written provocatively about race under the pen name of Richard Hoste a decade previously. His book argues that civil rights law causes our institutions to be woke. Leftists used civil rights laws to come to power and now force their values and beliefs on everyone else. The author sees clearly on race and IQ differences. He advocates working through the system to elect candidates who can then appoint judges who will overturn the worst aspects of civil rights laws.
The War on Whites by Ed Brodow was self-published in 2023 but reached a wide audience. It was the number-one bestseller on Amazon in the category of General Sociology of Race Relations and reached number five in Cultural Policy. The author documents case after case of anti-white animus from media, universities, corporations, schools and other institutions. He has since become an advocate for white people, though his main goal is to end identity politics for everyone.
Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities by Jack Cashill was released by Post Hill Press in July 2023. It tells the little-known story of how ethnic whites were pushed out of Northern cities in the 1960s and 1970s by black crime and violence. As noted on the Amazon page for the book, “[T]he ethnic Americans driven from their homes and neighborhoods — the author included — finally get the chance to tell their side of the story.” While anti-white violence is part of the story, another consequence is the loss of a true community felt by these mostly working-class whites when they moved to the suburbs.
Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World by Jeff Flynn-Paul was published in 2023 by Bombardier Books (a division of Post Hill Press). A professor of Global History and Economics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, the author challenges some of the anti-white myths about the United States and its treatment of American Indians. He notes that the number of Indians killed by whites has been greatly exaggerated, most land was purchased — not stolen — by whites, and that no genocide occurred.
More books on anti-whiteness are coming:
Top 6 books in “Cultural Policy” at Amazon are all Hanania and Rufo, and number 7 is something called “The War on Whites.” 😂
Feeling suddenly good about the future of the culture. https://t.co/gR96Z9WfX8 pic.twitter.com/I01465sBI7
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) September 21, 2023
Challenging taboos
White advocates might point out that with the partial exception of The War on Whites, none of the books listed above openly advocates for whites, and only Richard Hanania stresses racial differences in intelligence. But many of these authors take aim at civil rights laws and point out how they have led to anti-white discrimination and attitudes. A decade ago, such sentiments would be limited to outlets such as American Renaissance, VDARE, and Counter-Currents. The taboo is slowly being lifted. Moreover, the authors themselves seem to know the score when it comes to race and are not afraid to express forbidden thoughts on social media. Perhaps their next books will be even more explicit about anti-whiteness:
Harvard’s plagiarism scandal has exposed a troubling relationship between DEI and academic fraud. It makes sense: Why would academics who advocate lower standards for favored racial groups hold themselves to the same standard as more serious disciplines?https://t.co/NiKpJ6I7ta
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 23, 2024
Three federal judges in Illinois have a practice of giving more time to argue a motion for attorneys who are new, women, or non-white. First affirmative action in admissions, then hiring, then in every aspect of a job. pic.twitter.com/PDEPOlCK87
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) February 29, 2024
Few things are more enraging to students than the invocation of black privilege. pic.twitter.com/nRi4Lwtsk6
— Heather Mac Donald (@HMDatMI) September 22, 2023
From RedState: “Potential white military recruits shouldn’t bother signing their life away because they won’t be treated fairly and will not be promoted based purely on merit and accomplishment. They simply aren’t ‘diverse’ enough.” Read THE WAR ON WHITES. https://t.co/HnKpXtTG83
— Ed Brodow (@edbrodow) January 12, 2024
The charmed life of Capitol Police ‘Capt.’ Michael Byrd https://t.co/CTLLzToWkw For the least justifiable police shooting ever caught on video, Byrd was promoted to captain. @laralogan @annvandersteel @MelKShow @CaraCastronuova
— Jack Cashill (@jackcashill) February 8, 2024
As someone who lives in a small, overwhelmingly white city completely surrounded by rural whites, I would say that, in my experience, white Americans are not nearly enraged enough by the way their country is treating them.
That’s why I wrote my book. https://t.co/oFsI7V1Ce3
— Jeremy Carl (@realJeremyCarl) March 1, 2024
In addition to the publishers of these books, a number of smaller dissident-right publishers that are open to white advocacy have appeared. If this new “interglacial” period ends — as the 1990s period did — these outlets should still be able to offer the truth about race:
Conclusion
This brief period of openness on the part of mainstream publishers might be shut down. Despite selling well and spurring debate, these books challenge and enrage the Left. Nothing would make leftists happier than silencing dissenters as they did on social media before the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter in late 2022. Alternatively, this might be just the beginning. A new wave of books on race — including ones that tell the truth about racial differences and America’s demographic disaster — could well be on the horizon. Those who already know the truth on race should welcome this chance to educate even more people to racial realities.
