Fighting the Last War: Confusion, Partisanship, and Alarmism in the Literature on the Radical Right [Paperback]

The authors argue that the potential threat of a resurgence of fascism has been consistently exaggerated from 1945 until present day; that the ongoing lack of conceptual and definitional clarity with respect to terms like fascism, the radical right, the alt right, white supremacism, populism, racism, etc., has enabled ill-informed or dishonest commentators to distort their meaning and abusively misapply those labels so as to delegitimize their political opponents; and that the political and economic elites in charge of contemporary Western societies are now deliberately exaggerating and exploiting the threat posed by the domestic radical right in order to facilitate vilifying, harassing, de-platforming, censoring, canceling, and repressing disgruntled citizens (no matter where they may lie along the political spectrum) who openly criticize and vigorously oppose their agendas. The authors also advocate the use of well-established scholarly methods for carrying out research on the right and provide precise definitions of various terms in order to facilitate the development of more accurate categorizations.

Dr. Jeffrey M. Baleis emeritus professor in the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies (NPTS) Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS).
Dr. Tamir Bar-Onis professor-researcher in the School of Social Sciences and Government, Tecnol?gico de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education).

In recent years, these two veteran scholars have become dismayed to observe that sober, objective analysis has declined, while the appellations of 'fascist' and 'radical right' have become ever more frequent, indiscriminate, and finally virtually meaningless. Without evidence, insignificant right-wing groups are elevated to the status of dangerous 'militias,' and minor conservative associations are consigned to the 'radical right' or 'quasi-fascism.'
Bale and Bar-Ons new book is blC-