Culture Warlords

Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy is a non-fiction book by Tal Lavin.[1][2] In it, Lavin describes a project of inventing online personae that allow him 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.

Culture Warlords
AuthorTal Lavin
LanguageEnglish
SubjectWhite supremacy
GenreNon-fiction
Published2020, Hachette Books
Media typePrint, e-book, audiobook
Pages288 pages
ISBN978-0-30684-643-4
Websitehachettebooks.com/titles/talia-lavin/culture-warlords/9780306846434/

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,[3] 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.[4] This may be in reference to the white genocide conspiracy theory.

In March 2019, Lavin sold Culture Warlords to editor Paul Whitlatch at Hachette Books.[1][5] It was published on October 13, 2020.[6][7]

Content

Lavin invented online personae which allowed him to gain entry to white supremacist websites and chatrooms, gathering information for journalists and anti-fascist activists. The book describes these present-day encounters while also tracing “the distant and near history of the alt-right, from the medieval European blood libel to Henry Ford’s mainstreaming of anti-Semitic ideas to Gamergate and the stories of a radicalized adolescent YouTuber.”[3]

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."[6] Kirkus gave Culture Warlords a starred review[8] and USA Today named it number one in the “hottest new book releases” for the week it was published.[9]

Writing in The New York Times, Jennifer Szalai said, "One of the marvels of this furious book is how insolent and funny Lavin is."[10] 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 [he] understands so deeply both the modern idiom in which these bigots operate today and their historic roots in race science, eugenics, and anti-Semitism."[11]

Time named Culture Warlords one of the 100 must-read books of 2020.[12]

References
  1. "Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy". Library Journal. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  2. Paltrowitz, Darren (July 21, 2020). "25 Inspiring Books Worth Adding to Your COVID-19 Summer Reading List". Jewish Journal. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  3. Kellogg, Carolyn (October 27, 2020). "An Expedition Deep Into an Underworld of Online Hate". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  4. Hasan, Maham (October 13, 2020). ""A Car Crash Between Nicholas Sparks and Mein Kampf": In the Tangled World of Far-Right Chatrooms, White Supremacists Are Getting Organized". Vanity Fair. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  5. "Talia Lavin sells book on white supremacists; Mira Jacob on the inspirations behind "Good Talk"". Book Forum. March 26, 2019.
  6. "Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy". Publishers Weekly. October 8, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  7. VanDenburgh, Barbara (September 23, 2020). "20 new books to read this fall, from Mariah Carey, Jonathan Lethem, Megan Rapinoe, more". USA Today. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  8. "Culture Warlords". Kirkus Reviews. July 28, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  9. VanDenburgh, Barbara. "5 books not to miss: 'Culture Warlords' by Talia Lavin, P. Djèlí Clark's 'Ring Shout'". USA Today. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  10. Szalai, Jennifer (October 14, 2020). "An Undercover Trip into the Rageful Worlds of Incels and White Supremacists". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  11. Tuttle, Kate (October 22, 2020). "A writer infiltrates the world of white nationalism in 'Culture Warlords'". The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  12. "'Culture Warlords' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2020". Time. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
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