The Voice of Modern Hatred: Tracing the Rise of Neo-Fascism in Europe - Hardcover

Nicholas, Fraser

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 158567107X ISBN 13: 9781585671076

Publisher: Abrams Press, 2001

Synopsis

The end of the twentieth century was marked by a resurgence of extreme right-wing politics across Europe. Journalist Nicholas Fraser spent three years traveling across Europe to meet, confront, and try to understand the personalities behind this resurgence and assess the threat they pose to democracy. He interviewed members of "traditional" Far Rights groups, fascinated with the dark aesthetic of Fascism: the black boots, buckles, banners, and pagan mythology. He sat in meetings of "local" Fuhrers in Denmark, Belgium, and Germany -- sporting the uniform of Doc Martens and Fred Perry polo shirts.

But the Far Right does not consist only of disorganzied, Doc-Martened hooligans. Fraser also spoke with leaders who speak a coded language of euphemism rather than overt hate language. Unlike the provocateur-ish French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Austria's Jorg Haider has a talent for adapting his ideas to the present and, Fraser warns, one should not underestimate those who wear business suits and talk of "populism". His chapter on David Irving, the controversial right-wing historian who lost his libel lawsuit over claims he is a "Holocaust denier", marks a strike against those who would manipulate history.

In looking at neo-Fascism's recent history in Europe -- its philosophical antecedents and its modern day adherents -- Nicholas Fraser provides the deep background for the crucial and ongoing debate about how democracies should deal with the Far Right.

About this title

About the Author

Nicholas Fraser was born in London and educated at Oxford. He has worked in New York and London as a journalist for major newspapers and a producer for the BBC. He is also the author of Continental Drifts: Travels in New Europe.

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran journalist Fraser takes a behind-the-headlines approach to examine the faces of political extremism in contemporary Europe. Bent on understanding "the relationship between the old forms of hatred and the new," he offers no easy answers to the scourge. Fraser explores the more overt features of the phenomenon, including a thought-provoking chapter on an Arab immigrant responsible for a bombing at a French Jewish school who was killed by police in 1995, but what distinguishes this work is Fraser's focus on "semi-respectable fascists"-- they may be dressed like everyone else, and yet they are capable of atrocities. He deftly profiles known quantities like David Irving, the British historian (a word some would put in quotation marks) who denies the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz. And in Germany, Fraser attended a murder trial of what the prosecution called the "new type" of extremist--anonymous, acting independently, and embodying a "combination of reclusiveness and fanaticism" in whose mind "every man could be a F hrer." In another scene, some neo-Nazi youths demonstrate for Fraser a board game called Pogrom; modeled on Monopoly, its aim is to rid Germany of Jews. Readers may disagree with Fraser's conviction that "we would never again see... a real fascist government... doing its worst," openly spouting hatred. But it's difficult to disagree with his troubling conclusion that any future European fascist leader will not wear "brown trousers and a toothbrush moustache" but, like Austria's telegenic, xenophobic party leader J rg Haider (who is profiled here), will be "well-spoken and fashionably-dressed" and "skilled in the arts of euphemism." Agent, Kris Dahl, ICM (Feb.) Forecast: Focused on Europe, Fraser's book will seem less than urgent to many American readers; still, it should find a ready audience among readers concerned about the persistence of racism and hate.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abrams Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 158567107X
• ISBN 13: 9781585671076
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304