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The European Roots of the Alt-Right

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The European Roots of the Alt-Right

How Far-Right Ideas Are Going International

Foreign Affairs,

5 min read
5 take-aways
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What's inside?

America’s alt-right is drawing inspiration from re-invigorated far-right movements in Europe.

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8

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Recommendation

The American media depicts the alt-right as a modern reincarnation of earlier US white supremacist movements. But, as political science professor George Hawley explains, the core of the alt-right’s ideals actually come from Europe, where, since the late 1960s, the far right has worked to recast racist and antidemocratic principles as a philosophy-based fight for cultural preservation. getAbstract believes anyone trying to understand the alt-right phenomenon will find this article helpful.

Summary

America’s alt-right rose to national prominence during the 2016 presidential elections. The media pointed to parallels between alt-right ideologies and those of other home-grown racist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. But while these groups share strong similarities, America’s alt-right actually draws most of its inspiration from the “European New Right” (ENR), which originated in France in the late 1960s. 

In 1968, French right-wing journalist Alain de Benoist founded a conservative think tank. Influenced by German Weimar-era “conservative revolutionary ...

About the Author

George Hawley is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama and the author of Making Sense of the Alt-Right.


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