Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America

by Vegas Tenold

Overview

The dark story of the shocking resurgence of white supremacist and nationalist groups, and their path to political power

Six years ago, Vegas Tenold embedded himself among the members of three of America's most ideologically extreme white nationalist groups-the KKK, the National Socialist Movement, and the Traditionalist Workers Party. At the time, these groups were part of a disorganized counterculture that felt far from the mainstream.

But since then, all that has changed. Racially-motivated violence has been on open display at rallies in Charlottesville, Berkeley, Pikesville, Phoenix, and Boston. Membership in white nationalist organizations is rising, and national politicians, including the president, are validating their perceived grievances.

Everything You Love Will Burn offers a terrifying, sobering inside look at these newly empowered movements, from their conventions to backroom meetings with Republican operatives. Tenold introduces us to neo-Nazis in Brooklyn; a millennial Klanswoman in Tennessee; and a rising star in the movement, nicknamed the "Little Führer" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, who understands political power and is organizing a grand coalition of far-right groups to bring them into the mainstream.

Everything You Love Will Burn takes readers to the dark, paranoid underbelly of America, a world in which the white race is under threat and the enemy is everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568589947
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	02/20/2018
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Vegas Tenold is an award-winning journalist. He has covered the far right in America for years, as well as human rights in Russia, conflict in central Africa and the Middle East, and national security. A graduate of Columbia University's School of Journalism, his work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, New Republic, and Al Jazeera America. He was born and raised in Norway, and lives in Brooklyn.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Introduction: Election Day 2016 1

1 The Battle of Trenton 14

2 The Little Führer 33

3 The Defender of Western Civilization 49

4 Kiggy 68

5 The NSM Turns Forty 98

6 The Soldiers of the Earl Turner 115

7 National Kill-a-White-Person Day 131

8 The ANA 156

9 Hammerskins 175

10 Harrisburg 202

11 The Suits 223

12 The College Boys 245

13 Hail Heimbach 264

Postscript: The Hard Right 286

Acknowledgments 297

Notes 299

Index 311

Editorial Reviews

"A penetrating portrait of the men and women who are trying to instill fear and terror in our community. Vegas Tenold has done a great service by exposing their toxic ideologies in this must-read book."—Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning

"Vegas Tenold has produced a timely, eye-popping account of the edgy and often violent world of White Nationalists. He's been crisscrossing the country going back six years-on the ground and in the trenches, from New Jersey to Tennessee, Maryland, Indiana and elsewhere-taking copious notes about supremacists in all their chaotic varieties. It's meant hanging with neo-Nazis, skinheads, Hammerskins and Klansmen-at his own peril. It's meant attending fiery cross-burnings and white-members only caucuses at roadside motels or backyard barbecues. He's interviewed crude-cussing, weapon-toting racists alongside articulate radical-right leaders claiming to simply be pro-white, not anti-black. Then came Donald Trump's election as president, when their collective chant became, 'This Is Our Time.' But is it? Tenold was there for all of it — and for anyone wanting to untangle this dark, unruly sliver of Trump's web, Everything You Love Will Burn is a must read."—Dick Lehr, author of Black Mass and The Birth of aMovement

"Ever since Tocqueville, some of the keenest observers of American society have been foreigners, able to see what locals might take for granted. In this book, Vegas Tenold takes us inside the varied world of the extreme right. He gets us so close that we can see every pore of paranoia, every follicle of delusion, every unhinged ligament of logic-thus rendering them both more human and more terrifying at the same moment."—Michael Kimmel, author of Angry WhiteMen

"Vegas Tenold's work is the best sort of journalism: immersive, insightful, and beautifully written. An indispensable guide for anyone who wants to understand what makes the far-right tick, why it's galvanized now, and where it's likely to be heading."—Jamie Bartlett, author of The Dark Net and Radicals Chasing Utopia

"Vegas Tenold has gone far beyond the comfort zone of most reporters to document the rise of America's radical right in the Trump era. His bone-chilling account of the white nationalist movement-based on extensive interviews with its leaders and chief ideologues-shows in painstaking detail how ideas that were once off limits have seeped into mainstream politics."—Sasha Polakow-Suransky, author of Go Back to Where You Came From

"In this in-depth look at the growth of white nationalism, journalist Tenold presents a comprehensive portrait of supporters' beliefs, worldviews, and aspirations....A perceptive, if terrifying, look at the philosophies that persist throughout the United States, including an examination of their roots, and how they contribute to the viciously held beliefs of white nationalists."—Library Journal

"Everything You Love Will Burn provides helpful insights into this small but noisy element of the political landscape....[Tenold] provides an insider account of these organizations, helping readers understand their motivations and strategies.... Everything You Love Will Burn is a fascinating, disturbing book. Tenold tells an important story well....We should not ignore the extreme right, and Tenold's book provides welcome understanding."—Washington Post

"A terrifying, thoroughly reported look at newly empowered white-nationalist groups across the country, from Brooklyn to Tennessee, in a year that has seen racially motivated violence and demonstrations take center stage."—New York Post

"[Everything You Love Will Burn] is on-the-ground reporting about a new American reality. It is full of violence and hatred, and ultimately quite frightening to read."—The Progressive

From the Publisher

2017-12-05
In the shadow of Charlottesville, a journalistic account of some of the extreme right's players.Evil is not entirely banal, but it is entirely commonplace. Aided and abetted by the rise of Donald Trump, the extremist white-nationalist movement has been gaining strength, its numbers swelled by "the marginalized, disaffected, and lost [who] were the radical right's ideal audience." What's in it for them? Writes journalist Tenold, who covered the Anders Breivik case in his native Norway—Breivik, "a man who believed that the white race was at war," massacred 77 summer campers—the payoff is belonging in a movement where they no longer "feel invisible." Does that moment ever really come? For the rank and file, perhaps not; one whom the author profiles aspires to nothing more than a double-wide, a wife and kid, and a gun. The leaders, formerly shadowy types now propelled onto the main stage, are cashing in more handily as they harp on the supposed victimization of the white race in the hands of its nonwhite enemies. Some of these leaders are comparatively polished; the star of the show, a supremacist Tenold calls Matthew, thinks himself a scholar and is impatient with unsophisticated Klan and neofascist types whose political commitment extends to shouts of "white power!" Matthew cut his teeth in a pro-Western civilization group at college, fell in with supremacists at—naturally—the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, and moved from pondering the "Jewish question," which "boils down to whether Jews should be considered white and what their place in (white-led) society should be," to propagandizing for a nationalist utopia. Thankfully, Tenold avoids the dangers of normalizing monsters even as he admits to liking Matthew's "upbeat and friendly" manner. In the end, the author wonders whether the extremists are not superfluous given that "white supremacy is doing just fine without the far right."For those interested in charting the currents of domestic terrorism, a well-reported if dispiriting chronicle.

Kirkus Reviews

Vegas Tenold narrates his shocking audiobook on the rise of white supremacy in the United States. Tenold embeds himself in the homes and offices of white supremacists, witnessing street fights, riots, and everyday bickering. Part of what makes Tenold’s on-the-ground reporting even more striking—and equally disturbing—is the mundane nature of the members of these hate groups. Throughout, self-identified supporters of white nationalism work to collaborate with like-minded groups. After the rise and election of Donald Trump, Tenold discovers he’s reporting on a movement in rapid ascendency. This turn of events propels his audiobook into required listening for anyone seeking insight into the ugliest elements of the current political climate. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2018 - AudioFile

Vegas Tenold narrates his shocking audiobook on the rise of white supremacy in the United States. Tenold embeds himself in the homes and offices of white supremacists, witnessing street fights, riots, and everyday bickering. Part of what makes Tenold’s on-the-ground reporting even more striking—and equally disturbing—is the mundane nature of the members of these hate groups. Throughout, self-identified supporters of white nationalism work to collaborate with like-minded groups. After the rise and election of Donald Trump, Tenold discovers he’s reporting on a movement in rapid ascendency. This turn of events propels his audiobook into required listening for anyone seeking insight into the ugliest elements of the current political climate. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2018 - AudioFile