Bring the War Home

Kathleen Belew

Related Links

• At the Atlantic, read Kathleen Belew on the “crunchy-to-alt-right pipeline”
• On NPR’s All Things Considered, listen to Belew analyze the guilty verdict—for “seditious conspiracy”—given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol
• On MSNBC, watch Belew discuss with Rachel Maddow how Donald Trump’s November 2022 decision to host a fringe racist for dinner elevated the profile of that racist along with the fascist, white power movement in Republican politics
• As part of their ongoing series “Exploring Hate,” watch Belew’s July 2022 in-depth conversation with Amanpour & Co.’s Walter Isaacson
• Listen to Belew’s wide-ranging conversation with the podcast Armchair Expert about how to define “white power” in the United States (and internationally), the roles women have within it, and why militias are socially accepted in the U.S.
• On WBUR (Boston, MA)’s Here & Now, listen to Belew discuss with host Robin Young what to expect from hearings focused around how members of the far-right prepared to storm the halls of Congress on January 6, 2021
• In the New York Times, read Belew on the May 2022 domestic terrorism attack in Buffalo, NY, and the “long-game” strategy of white-power activists
• At the Atlantic, read Belew’s warning that manifestos (such as the one left by the Buffalo, NY assailant) are not to be ignored—they are playbooks for the next attack
• Listen to Belew discuss with NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday host Ayesha Rascoe how white nationalist groups find their targets
• Read a Time report, informed by discussion with Belew, on white power mercenaries fighting for the “lost cause” narrative around the world
• Listen to Belew explain the racism underlying “great replacement theory” on the NPR series “Consider This”
• On MSNBC’s The Last Word, watch Belew connect the dots in racially-motivated mass shootings around the world
• Watch Belew’s conversation with CNN’s Anderson Cooper about the Buffalo mass shooting
• On NPR’s All Things Considered, listen to Belew’s conversation with Michel Martin responding to the Buffalo supermarket attack and the shooter’s apparent belief in “great replacement theory”
• On PBS News Weekend, watch Belew explain the role of white power extremism in the Buffalo attack
• Read a New Yorker Q&A with Belew responding to the May 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, NY
• On PBS NewsHour, watch Belew place into context news that the leader of the right-wing paramilitary group Oath Keepers and ten group members were charged with seditious conspiracy for attempting to overthrow the U.S. government on January 6, 2021
• At the Washington Post, read Belew’s warning that white supremacist and militant right-wing organizations were a critical part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021
• Watch Belew’s January 2022 conversation with Bill Moyers and Hari Sreenivasan on CNN’s Amanpour & Co.
• On PBS NewsHour, watch Belew weigh in (on the first anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol) on how radicalization and extremism are testing our democracy
• Read a Guardian interview with Belew on news of Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal: “a moment that animates not only the fringe…but also components of the mainstream”
• On The Ezra Klein Show, listen to Belew and Messengers of the Right author Nicole Hemmer grapple with the recent “mainstreaming” of white power ideology [transcript]
• On PBS’s Amanpour & Co., watch Belew draw a direct line between the Vietnam War and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol—and weigh in on the Biden administration’s new strategy to counter domestic terrorism
• Read a New York Times analysis, informed by discussion with Belew, of political divisions among U.S. military veterans, and how to square the fact that support for the “nation” may not equal support for the “government”
• On CNN’s Situation Room, watch Belew respond to news that members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys are under indictment for conspiracy in the Capitol riot investigation
• Listen to Belew discuss with Columbia Journalism Review how the events of January 6, 2021 are being misrepresented in press coverage—and how reporters should be framing the ongoing threat
• On MSNBC’s The ReidOut, watch Belew unpack how the pro-Trump mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol fits into America’s legacy of lynching
• On CNN’s AC360, watch Belew and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe discuss the prior planning involved in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the more than eighty individuals facing federal charges in the riot
• Read a New Yorker feature, informed by discussion with Belew, on the long lead-up to the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol
• On NPR’s Code Switch, listen to Belew analyze symbols of white nationalism that made it to the floor of the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 attack
• Read a Code Switch interview with Belew in which she further unpacks the origins of the extremist movement that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6
• On NPR’s All Things Considered, listen to Belew discuss how resources were used effectively to prevent violence from white power and militia movements during President Biden’s inauguration ceremony
• In the Washington Post, read Belew’s argument that leaving Trump in office after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will further encourage white nationalists
• Read a Los Angeles Times interview with Belew on the continuing relevance in extreme right groups of The Turner Diaries, a 1978 novel in which an underground revolutionary group of self-proclaimed patriots known as the Organization attacks the U.S. Capitol
• Read Belew’s comparison of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol with the plot of the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries
• On NPR’s All Things Considered, listen to Belew analyze the domestic terror events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021—“an attack on our democracy and its institutions”
• Listen to Belew unpack the rise of the modern white power movement on NPR’s Throughline
• At Politico, read why Belew believes “stolen election” rhetoric is dangerous
• Read Literary Hub’s “White Supremacy Has Always Been More Powerful than Its Loudest Proponents,” a roundtable discussion between Belew and fellow authors Issac Bailey (Why Didn’t We Riot?), and Connor Towne O’Neill (Down Along with That Devil’s Bones)
• Watch Belew in “The Post-Election Path,” a November 2020 roundtable discussion hosted by The State of American Democracy Project as part of its series “Democracy Unchained”
• Read a Chicago Tribune profile of Belew
• On C-SPAN’s Q&A, watch Belew’s conversation with the Wall Street Journal’s Jillian Kay Melchior comparing the Proud Boys to “antifa”
• Read an Esquire interview with Belew on the “escalating” threat of right-wing extremist terrorism as the November 2020 American election draws near
• On MSNBC’s The Last Word, watch Belew analyze how Donald Trump’s “stand back and stand by” comment highlights a larger plot to subvert democracy
• In the Washington Post, read Belew’s warning that the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer must not be understood as a one-off event by a few unhinged individuals
• Listen to Belew explain on NPR’s All Things Considered why the FBI is using the term “militia” to describe an armed anti-government group that hatches terrorist plots—in this case, a plot to kidnap and potentially execute the governor of Michigan
• Watch Belew discuss the right-wing plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan on the web series In Lieu of Fun
• Watch Belew’s conversation with Ibram X. Kendi at the NYU Global Scholars & Innovators event “Confronting White Power in 2020”
• Watch the trailer for the ABC News documentary Homegrown Hate (October 2020), which features expert commentary by Kathleen Belew
• Listen to Belew’s conversation with James Carville and Al Hunt on their podcast Politics War Room
• At The Cut, read an interview with Belew on the question of whether far-right violence will erupt on Election Day
• Read Belew’s analysis (on Twitter) of the DHS Homeland Threat Assessment published in early October 2020
• Read Belew’s New York Times essay, “Why ‘Stand Back and Stand By’ Should Set Off Alarm Bells”
• At Time, read a Q&A with Belew on the history of the far-right Proud Boys
• Watch Belew and the NAACP’s Janai Nelson discuss the implications of Trump’s “stand by” comment on PBS NewsHour
• Read Belew’s Twitter thread unpacking Trump’s “stand back and stand by” comment during the September 29 presidential debate
• Watch Kathleen’s conversation about far-right extremism with CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Susan Bro, mother of white supremacist terrorism victim Heather Heyer
• On the NPR podcast It’s Been A Minute with Sam Sanders, listen to Belew explain what we commonly get wrong when we talk about white supremacy (at 03:00)
• On The Lawfare Podcast, listen to Belew’s conversation with Elizabeth Neumann, former Assistant Secretary for Threat Prevention and Security Policy at the Department of Homeland Security
• Read a Vox report, informed by discussion with Belew, on how white nationalism became a “centerpiece” of the Trump administration
• Read an Intercept report, informed by discussion with Belew, on “BlueLeaks”—leaked law enforcement documents that reveal an obsession with “antifa” despite evidence of threats of violence to police and protesters from the far right
• On WBUR (Boston, MA)’s On Point, listen to Belew discuss the extremist libertarian “boogaloo” movement that seems to have inspired Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo to murderous violence in June 2020
• Read a CBC News report, informed by discussion with Belew, on the growth of support for white supremacist antigovernment terrorism in Canada
• Read a Vice News report, informed by discussion with Belew, on the vexing discovery that many members of the right-wing extremist “boogaloo” movement are also active-duty military
• Read a Guardian report on the growth of white supremacy within the United States military
• On KPFA (Berkeley, CA)’s UpFront, listen to Belew describe the origins and methods of the right-wing extremist “Boogaloo Bois” [at 34:00]
• Read a New York Times report, informed by discussion with Belew, on the “boogaloo movement” that seeks to incite “race war”
• At CNN Opinion, read Belew’s analysis of the January 2020 arrest by the FBI of three men with ties to the violent white supremacist paramilitary group The Base just before their attendance at a planned pro-gun rally in Richmond, Virginia
• On NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, listen to Belew discuss leaked emails in which Trump administration lackey Stephen Miller encouraged far-right website Breitbart to promote white supremacist ideas
• Read a New York Times report, informed by discussion with Belew, on the constantly shifting symbols, memes, and gestures (such as the “OK” sign) used by hate groups
• On the Al Jazeera program Fault Lines, watch Belew explain the white supremacist ideology that connects recent domestic terrorist attacks in Pittsburgh and El Paso, and how racist discourse has seeped into the mainstream
• In the New York Times, read Belew’s response to the August 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, TX, part of a rising spate of white nationalist terrorist acts
• Watch Belew explain the ideology behind the El Paso shooting in an interview with PBS NewsHour
• On NPR’s All Things Considered, listen to Belew discuss how old racist books and other artifacts influence white nationalists of the digital age—including the perpetrator of the El Paso mass shooting
• Listen to Belew discuss the history of the white power movement—and what to do after El Paso—on The Nation podcast Start Making Sense
• At The Forward, read a report (informed by Belew’s research) on the innocuously-named “American Identity Movement”—a rebranding of Identity Evropa, which co-organized the “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville
• Listen to Belew’s discussion with public intellectual Sam Harris on his podcast Making Sense
• Read a Chronicle of Higher Education report on scholarly attempts “not just to disseminate new ideas…but also to dismantle dangerous ones”—such as the distortions of the historical record popular among white supremacists
• At Five Books, discover Belew’s top recommended books about white supremacy
• Read a Yahoo! News Q&A with Belew in the wake of the El Paso attack
• On CNN’s GPS, watch Belew explain to Fareed Zakaria how disparate groups of neo-Nazis, skinheads, and Klansmen came together to form the twenty-first-century White Power Movement
• At The Intercept, read an analysis, informed by Belew’s work, of recent white nationalist terror events and the “dangers of historical amnesia”
• Read a transcript of Belew’s conversation with CNN’s Anderson Cooper in the wake of the El Paso shooting
• Read Guardian coverage of the El Paso attack
• Watch Kathleen Belew explain the crucial difference between “white power” and “white nationalist” ideologies—and why there was a sea change in 1983—on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight
• On WNYC’s On the Media, listen to Belew make the case for why the massacres in Christchurch, New Zealand, are the latest manifestation not just of resentment and paranoia—or even radical racism—but of a clearly defined revolutionary white power movement
• Via C-SPAN’s Book TV, watch Belew discuss Bring the War Home at the 2019 Printers Row Litfest in Chicago
• Listen to Belew’s discussion with KIRO (Seattle, WA)’s Ross Files
• At Public Books, read Belew’s in-depth conversation with historian and fellow HUP author Monica Muñoz Martinez
• Listen to Kathleen Belew discuss the threat posed by violent white supremacists on Voice of America’s Encounter
• On The Chauncey DeVega Show, listen to Belew explain the white power movement’s global plans for “race war”
• Read New York Times and Salon reporting, informed by discussion with Belew, on how increasingly active (and violent) border militias are connected to the transnational white power movement
• Read a Salon interview with Belew on New Zealand, Donald Trump, and the terms “white nationalism” versus “white power”
• At Newsy, watch Belew explain how Trump’s implication that the New Zealand attack was an isolated incident is a success for white supremacists’ leaderless resistance model
• On Radio New Zealand’s Sunday Morning, listen to Belew provide valuable context—earlier incarnations of the white power movement—for the violence in Christchurch
• On WNYC’s The Takeaway, listen to Belew explain how the New Zealand events underscore that the underlying ideology is not “nationalist” but instead specifically transnationalist—and predicated on white supremacy
• On KPFA (Pacifica Radio)’s Letters and Politics, listen to Belew discuss the manifesto left by the Christchurch mosque terrorist as a political document comparable to those by Dylann Roof, Anders Breivik, and “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski
• On the Vancouver Public Radio podcast Redeye, listen to Belew describe the “common thread” that ties together many seemingly unrelated violent attacks
• In the New York Times, read about the increasingly popularity “replacement theory” in white supremacist ideology and in alt-right spaces online
• On NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, listen to Belew explain how white supremacist ideology spreads
• On PBS NewsHour, watch Belew discuss how the massacres at two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques are an example of malignant growth in extremist anti-immigrant and white supremacist ideology
• Watch Belew respond to the New Zealand mosque attacks in a panel discussion on CBC’s The National [autoplay video]
• At Dissent, read Belew’s analysis of the New Zealand mosque killings as only the latest example of work by a transnational movement that wants to foment race war
• Listen to Belew discuss radical white terrorism on The Intercept’s podcast, Intercepted
• Read more about Belew’s research as it pertains to the New Zealand events in the Daily Star (Toronto, Canada), New York Times, Vox, and the Washington Post
• Listen to Belew on WTTW (Chicago, IL)’s The Interview Show with Mark Bazer
• On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, watch a feature on the “Documenting Hate” documentary in which Belew explains how the aftermath of warfare correlates with increased recruiting of veterans by paramilitarist white power/white supremacist groups
• Read a March 2019 Guardian report, informed by Belew’s research, warning that the “neo-Nazi plot against America” is well entrenched—and is likely to become more powerful during the remaining years of the Trump administration
• Read New York Times coverage of the arrest of Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Hasson and why Belew believes he can be classified as a “white power activist”—not just a passive proponent of white nationalist beliefs
• Read a Vice report on the U.S. military’s failure to confront the problem of violent extremism within its ranks—including Belew’s thoughts on how Hasson slipped through the cracks
• At the Huffington Post, read about the hidden problem of white nationalism within the U.S. military
• Listen to Belew describe the “business model” of white power movements on The Majority Report with Sam Seder
• On BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed, listen to Belew trace the origins and development of the racist far right in the U.S.—and compare it to similar forces in Europe
• Watch a Democracy Now! feature that uses Belew’s research in its argument that perpetual warfare abroad is fueling white supremacist violence within the United States
• On the Jacobin podcast The Dig, listen to Belew discuss the ideology behind the October 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh
• At The Daily Beast, read Belew’s analysis of the Tree of Life attack as another tragic success of a decentralized, but increasingly engaged, white power movement
• At PBS.org, stream the full 55-minute PBS Frontline/ProPublica documentary, “Documenting Hate: New American Nazis” (November 2018), for which Kathleen Belew provided expert commentary
• On the podcast Black Agenda Report, listen to Belew discuss how white supremacist ideology has evolved past the localized terror of the Ku Klux Klan
• Watch Belew’s interview with Democracy Now! on the long history of violence simmering below the August 2017 white supremacist actions in Charlottesville, VA
• On the University of Chicago podcast Big Brains, listen to Belew explain her use of archival resources for understanding the past and giving context to the present
• At NYR Daily, read Wajahat Ali—informed by his discussion with Belew—on how to deradicalize white supremacists
• At Past Punditry, historian Nicole Hemmer’s podcast, listen to Belew’s contributions throughout a six-episode series on the August 12 (“A12”), 2017, violence in Charlottesville, Virginia during the Unite the Right rally and counterprotest
• At The Trace, read Belew’s historical take on actions by municipalities to regulate armed militias, the most dangerous of which have generally been right- rather than left-wing
• On KUER’s RadioWest, listen to Belew explain the history of the white power movement, including its roots in a feeling of betrayal among Vietnam vets—and how rhetoric turned into real violence
• On Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, watch Belew explain how the modern white power activists came to declare war on the state—and how their strategies parallel those of Islamist terrorists
• On CBS News, watch Belew chart the path of radical white supremacists from the Vietnam War onwards
• On ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live, listen to Belew explain how the Vietnam War served as a “lightning rod” for disaffected white power groups
• In the New York Times, read Belew’s analysis of the Oklahoma City bombing’s roots, not in “lone-wolf” misanthropy, but in decades of organized white-power activism
• Watch Belew present Bring the War Home on the bloggingheads.tv interview program, The Wright Show
• Read a Q&A with Belew on the secret history of white power in the New York Times newsletter “Race/Related”
• On NPR’s Fresh Air, listen to Belew’s discussion with Terry Gross about the Vietnam War–era roots of today’s alt-right activism, and how recent “lone wolf” terrorists—like Dylan Roof—are in fact deeply enmeshed in the white power movement
• On NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, listen to Belew explain how acts of terrorism by seemingly isolated, misanthropic white American men are in fact part of a committed and organized white power movement decades in the making
• Read Belew’s discussion with Slate about the effects of our failure to understand white power as a broad social movement
• Read a Vox interview with Belew about the white power movement’s origins in the aftermath of the Vietnam War
• On This American Life, listen to Belew discuss [at 34:10] how the white power movement adopted the “leaderless resistance” model of cell terrorism
• Read an in-depth Q&A with Belew at the Political Research Associates magazine The Public Eye
• Read Belew’s 2014 New York Times op-ed on veterans, violence, and white supremacy
• Visit Kathleen Belew’s website

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