Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House Book Review

 Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House by Mike Wendling

2018

Nonfiction, American politics

Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House is an introduction to the alt-right movement, starting with its origins in the early 200s to its rise in public visibility in the mid-2010s. 

I originally decided to pick up Alt-Right after my first year sociology professor discussed his research on the far Right movement. I read this book in early December and I honestly didn’t know if I wanted to type up the review I wrote. While I had a great time reading Alt-Right and found it incredibly interesting, I wasn’t sure if it would be relevant considering a lot of my other reviews are for YA and classic books. Cut to January 6, 2021… when the Alt-Right movement actually made it the Capitol. 

Alt-Right is eye opening and explains what the movement stands for and the threat it poses to modern day society. This book gave me great context to understanding how and why a group of white supremacists would attempt a coup. While Alt-Right was published close to three years ago now (which is a long time for a movement that lives on the internet,) Alt-Right is still an incredibly relevant read.

Rating 4/5: Wendling’s Alt-Right offers an in-depth look into different aspects of far-right movements in the United States and beyond. Despite being a serious and at times complicated topic, the book is interesting and will answer any question you might have ever had about the movement.