A study of the French National Front and its implications for the rest of the western world.

The definitive firsthand account of the movement that permanently broke the American political consensus. What do internet trolls, economic populists, white nationalists, techno-anarchists and Alex Jones have in common? Nothing, except for an unremitting hatred of evangelical progressivism and the so-called “Cathedral” from whence it pours forth. Contrary to the dissembling explanations from the corporate press, this movement did not emerge overnight—nor are its varied subgroups in any sense interchangeable with one another. As united by their opposition as they are divided by their goals, the members of the New Right are willfully suspicious of those in the mainstream who would seek to tell their story. Fortunately, author Michael Malice was there from the very inception, and in The New Right recounts their tale from the beginning. Malice provides an authoritative and unbiased portrait of the New Right as a movement of ideas—ideas that he traces to surprisingly diverse ideological roots. From the heterodox right wing of the 1940s to the Buchanan/Rothbard alliance of 1992 and all the way through to what he witnessed personally in Charlottesville, The New Right is a thorough firsthand accounting of the concepts, characters and chronology of this widely misunderstood sociopolitical phenomenon. Today’s fringe is tomorrow’s orthodoxy. As entertaining as it is informative, The New Right is required reading for every American across the spectrum who would like to learn more about the past, present and future of our divided political culture.

A Times Political Book of the Year A Daily Mail Political Book of the Year A Guardian Political Book of the Year An Independent Political Book of the Year Veering from the hilarious to the tragic, Andrew Mitchell's tales from the parliamentary jungle make for one of the most entertaining political memoirs in years. From his prep school years, straight out of Evelyn Waugh, through the Army to Cambridge, the City of London and the Palace of Westminster, Mitchell has passed through a series of British institutions at a time of furious social change – in the process becoming rather more cynical about the Establishment. Here, he brilliantly lifts the lid on its inner workings, from the punctilio of high finance to the dark arts of the government Whips' Office, and reveals how he accidentally started Boris Johnson's political career – an act which rebounded on him spectacularly. Engagingly honest about his ups and downs in politics, Beyond a Fringe is crammed with riotous political anecdotes and irresistible insider gossip from the heart of Westminster.

The first scholarly examination of underground music in the digital age

This offbeat slice of American history places the story of our great republic beneath an unexpected lens: that of fringe candidates for president of the United States. Mark Stein explores how their quest for our nation’s highest office helped to amplify voices otherwise quashed during their day. His careening tour through elections past includes the efforts of true pioneers in the quest for social equality in our country: the first woman to run for president, Victoria Woodhull in 1872; the first African American to run for president, George E. Taylor in 1904; and the first openly gay cross-dressing candidate for president, Joan Jett Blakk in 1992. But The Presidential Fringe also takes a look at those who would jest their way into the Oval Office, from comedians such as Will Rogers and Gracie Allen to Pat Paulsen and Stephen Colbert. Along the way, Stein shows how even seemingly zany candidates, such as “Live Forever” Jones, Vegetarian Party candidate John Maxwell, Flying Saucer Party candidate Gabriel Green, or, most recently, Vermin Supreme, provide extraordinary insights of clarity into who we were when they ran for president and how we became who we are today. Ultimately, Stein’s examination reveals that it was often precisely these fringe candidates who planted the seeds from which mainstream candidates later harvested genuine, positive change. Written in Stein’s direct and witty style, The Presidential Fringe surveys and portrays an American landscape rife with the unlikely, unassuming, unexpected, and (in a few cases) unbalanced presidential hopefuls who, in their own way, have contributed to this nation’s founding quest to form a more perfect Union.

Pro-Family Politics and Fringe Parties in Canada explores the organizational and ideological nature of political parties that are initially formed to do the work of social movements. Specifically, it examines the development of the Family Coalition Party of British Columbia (FCP) from its origins as a group of alienated Social Credit Party members to its rebirth as the Unity Party of British Columbia, and through its struggles as a marginal political entity along the way. While addressing the FCP's relationship to the larger North American pro-family movement, Chris MacKenzie also deftly demonstrates how the party can be seen as organizationally congruent with its ideological antithesis, the Green Party. Basing his findings on seven years of field research, he identifies the obstacles that political parties involved in social movement work must overcome in order for them to achieve their goals. He concludes that, despite their invaluablecontribution to democracy, such party / movements have limited political institutionalization. Consequently, their only realistic goal may be to merge their ideals with those of another, larger political body. This book makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the genesis, development, and impact of political party / movements in Canada. Moreover, it provides useful insight into the dynamics and issues that make up the current pro-family movements in Canada and the United States.

This timely reissue of Richard Hofstadter's classic work on the fringe groups that influence American electoral politics offers an invaluable perspective on contemporary domestic affairs.In The Paranoid Style in American Politics, acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence — and derail — the larger agendas of a political party. He investigates the politics of the irrational, shedding light on how the behavior of individuals can seem out of proportion with actual political issues, and how such behavior impacts larger groups. With such other classic essays as “Free Silver and the Mind of 'Coin' Harvey” and “What Happened to the Antitrust Movement?, ” The Paranoid Style in American Politics remains both a seminal text of political history and a vital analysis of the ways in which political groups function in the United States.

An in-depth analysis of the increasingly important role of cyberspace in the political arena, and the effect that the cyberspace communities, political action groups, and journalists had on the 1996 US Presidential campaign and election.

The freedoms guaranteed by our Bill of Rights have allowed a simmering subculture of political fringe groups to develop and even to flourish in America, as they have in no other nation. These radical associations - sometimes dangerous, sometimes merely quirky - illuminate a dark part of the American psyche. In this encyclopedic work, John George and Laird Wilcox present a thorough and fair assessment of extremist groups on the periphery of the American political system. The authors begin by surveying the history of the extremist trend in America prior to 1960. They then delineate the general characteristics of extremism on both ends of the political spectrum, relate extremism to constitutional principles, and analyze the factors that motivate fringe-group members. The bulk of the book is devoted to an in-depth discussion of more than forty separate groups from the extreme right and left. The authors examine each group's history, beliefs, and current activities. The book concludes with a fascinating appendix on the use of fake quotes and fabricated documents, a common ploy of many extremist organizations.

Winner of the Austrian Book Prize for the 2016 German translation, in the category of Humanities and Social Sciences. Populist right-wing politics is moving centre-stage, with some parties reaching the very top of the electoral ladder: but do we know why, and why now? In this book Ruth Wodak traces the trajectories of such parties from the margins of the political landscape to its centre, to understand and explain how they are transforming from fringe voices to persuasive political actors who set the agenda and frame media debates. Laying bare the normalization of nationalistic, xenophobic, racist and antisemitic rhetoric, she builds a new framework for this ‘politics of fear’ that is entrenching new social divides of nation, gender and body. The result reveals the micro-politics of right-wing populism: how discourses, genres, images and texts are performed and manipulated in both formal and also everyday contexts with profound consequences. This book is a must-read for scholars and students of linguistics, media and politics wishing to understand these dynamics that are re-shaping our political space.