American Swastika

January 4, 2010
America's white racists see themselves as an endangered minority, according to this disturbing look at the white supremacist movement. Simi, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Nebraska, teams up with Futrell, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, to provide a panorama of the white power movement in its different regional and ideological iterations. With insight and clarity, the authors offer a detailed review of supremacist literature, as well as the role the Internet has played in strengthening the movement. Although occasionally dry, the book is indisputably a powerful and unnerving study of how parents indoctrinate their children to hate and fear minorities, and the role that activities as mundane as concerts, house parties and tattooing can play in the conversion of new recruits into these subcultures. Also helpful is the overview of groups ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to racist skinheads, each of whom have their own distinctive beliefs, social codes and agenda.

February 1, 2010
As liberal activists have pointed out, the Obama presidency has not signaled a new era of racial harmony or quelled racial animosity in America. Simi (criminology & criminal justice, Univ. of Nebraska, Omaha) and Futrell (sociology, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas) here demonstrate that white supremacy, racial hatred, and white solidarity are still alive and well. Through their revealing and disturbing ethnographic accounts of the activities of white supremacist groups, referred to as the Aryans, the authors argue that white supremacist ideas, identity, and pride are cultivated and disseminated through Aryan "free spaces." Aryan homes, parties, white power music, and the Internet create places in which they can reaffirm white power ideology and instill white racial pride in themselves and their families, including their children. Unlike Dave Hall and Tim Burkey's "Into the Devil's Den: How an FBI Informant Got Inside the Aryan Nations and a Special Agent Got Him Out Alive", the authors here bring their academic knowledge of the white power movement to bear on their ethnographic study. VERDICT Of interest to students and researchers of hate groups and white supremacist activities in America.Karen Okamoto, John Jay Coll. of Criminal Justice

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2013

This is perhaps the most essential resource for understanding the white power movement in the United States. Using harrowing interviews and observations, Simi and Futrell confirm that white supremacy is thriving and give the reader unprecedented access to the "free spaces" of the movement, where ideology is articulated: birthday parties, punk rock concerts, and rallies.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.