Table of Contents

Contents:

Part I: The Problem of the Alt-Right

1. The Emergence of the Alt-Right

2. How Big Is the Alt-Right?

Part II: Intellectual Roots of the Alt-Right

3. From Right-Wing Extremism to the Postpaleos

4. Crystallization of the Alt-Right from 2000 to 2016

Part III: Alt-Right Ideology

5. Primer on Ideologies

6. The Alt-Right on the Foundational Principles of American Politics

7. Racialism

8. Anti-Americanism

9. The Alt-Lite, Breitbart, Bannon, and Trump

10. Conclusion

Notes

Index

About the Author

Thomas J. Main is a professor at the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, CUNY. He is the author of Homelessness in New York City: Policymaking from Koch to de Blasio (NYU Press, 2016) and editor of the anthology, Is the American Constitution Obsolete? (Carolina Academic Press, 2013). He holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University and an MPA (master in public administration) from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He has written widely for academic journals, political magazines, and newspapers.

Reviews

“Thomas Main's The Rise of the Alt-Right is a thorough examination of this movement, its origin, and its possible future. Main does something special—he takes the time to look at the movement through data on its audience. This challenges the notion that the ideas animating this movement represents a fringe viewpoint. For those concerned about the rise of this movement and its possible future arc, Main's book is required reading.”—Heidi Beirich, Director, Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center“In a matter of a few years the Alt-Right has gone from obscurity to well-deserved infamy. But a purely moral reaction to it is not sufficient. To combat it we also need clarity about its history, its size, and its intellectual foundations, such as they are. Thomas Main is the first to offer both a sober, empirical analysis of the Alt-Right movement and a serious engagement with its fundamental presuppositions. An indispensable map to the circle of hell in which we now find ourselves.”—Mark Lilla, author of The Once and Future Liberal“Main provides a detailed account of the emergence of the alt-right, an overview of its intellectual roots, and a discussion of the underlying ideas that guide the alt-right. Main argues that rather than being a social movement, constituency, or interest group, the alt-right is a political ideology, and he concludes that the "main challenges to democratic liberalism now come not from the radical left, as was the case in the latter half of the 20th century, but from the radical right." Anyone who is interested in understanding the forces at play in contemporary American politics would benefit from reading this book.”—CHOICE