''Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy'' is a non-fiction book by

Talia Lavin Talia Lavin (born 1989) is an American journalist. She is the author of Culture Warlords, ''Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy'', published in 2020, and the forthcoming October 2024 book Wild Faith, ''Wild Faith: How ...

. In the book, Lavin describes a project of inventing online personae that allow her to meet and expose fascist white supremacists who gather in online chatrooms and websites; the book also traces the historic roots of these contemporary phenomena. ''Time'' named ''Culture Warlords'' one of the 100 must-read books of 2020.

Publication history

Lavin, who is Jewish and the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, became motivated to investigate the topic following white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, where "Jews will not replace us!" was a rallying cry. This may be in reference to the

white genocide conspiracy theory The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a white supremacist conspiracy theory which states that there is a deliberate plot, often blamed on Jews, to promote miscegenation, interracial marriage, mass non- ...

. In March 2019, Lavin sold ''Culture Warlords'' to editor Paul Whitlatch at Hachette Books. It was published on October 13, 2020.

Content

Lavin invented online personae, which allowed her to gain entry to white supremacist websites and chatrooms, gathering information for journalists and

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

activists. The book describes these present-day encounters while also tracing “the distant and near history of the

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

, from the medieval European

blood libel Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...

to Henry Ford’s mainstreaming of anti-Semitic ideas to

Gamergate Gamergate may refer to: * Gamergate (ant), a worker ant that can store sperm and reproduce sexually * Gamergate (harassment campaign), targeting women in the video game industry * Lt. Gamergate, a character in the ''Adventure Time'' episode " Den ...

and the stories of a radicalized adolescent YouTuber.”

Reception

'' Publishers Weekly'' called the book a "bracing and wide-ranging look at the internet as a breeding ground for racism and misogyny. Readers with a strong stomach for hateful ideology will find plenty of harrowing takeaways." ''

Kirkus ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' gave ''Culture Warlords'' a

starred review A starred review is a book review __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece ...

and '' USA Today'' named it number one in the “hottest new book releases” for the week it was published. Writing in '' The New York Times'', Jennifer Szalai said, "One of the marvels of this furious book is how insolent and funny Lavin is." In her review for the '' Boston Globe'', Kate Tuttle notes that while other books treat similar material, Lavin's work "feels particularly insightful, perhaps because she understands so deeply both the modern idiom in which these bigots operate today and their historic roots in race science, eugenics, and anti-Semitism." ''Time'' named ''Culture Warlords'' one of the 100 must-read books of 2020.

References

External links

*
Going Undercover on a Racist Dating Site
– excerpt published in '' The Nation''
"Conspiracy theories about Soros aren’t just false. They’re anti-Semitic."
in ''The Washington Post'' {{Alt-right footer 2020 non-fiction books Books about race and ethnicity Books about antisemitism Books about fascism Hachette Books books