annieb123's review
5.0
Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
It Can Happen Here is an academic examination of extremist ideology and the increasing possibility of genocide in the USA by Dr. Alexander Laban Hinton. Released 8th June 2021 by NYU Press, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.
This is an erudite and well written monograph on the open rise of white extremism in the USA and a reasoned, logical examination of the ways in which it could give rise to genocide and, most importantly, concrete methods to avoid this outcome. The author is an academic and internationally recognized expert in this field and this is what I would call a layman accessible academic treatise of the ideas in all their incarnations as they intersect culture and history. As an academic work, it is *full* of annotations, notes, and minutiae (in a good way). I stopped often to read the background of some of his points in context (many of them link to online resources which are accessible by anyone).
The author knows what he's talking about. He writes perceptively and quite chillingly of what's happened, what's currently happening, and what the possible outcomes are. In short, it *can* happen in the USA and pretending that it's completely impossible and unthinkable is a desperately dangerous ignorance which we can't afford.
Five stars. I learned quite a lot from this book. Much of it made me sad and angry. It was in no way an "easy" read. I would recommend it for library acquisition and also for readers of history and culture.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
It Can Happen Here is an academic examination of extremist ideology and the increasing possibility of genocide in the USA by Dr. Alexander Laban Hinton. Released 8th June 2021 by NYU Press, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.
This is an erudite and well written monograph on the open rise of white extremism in the USA and a reasoned, logical examination of the ways in which it could give rise to genocide and, most importantly, concrete methods to avoid this outcome. The author is an academic and internationally recognized expert in this field and this is what I would call a layman accessible academic treatise of the ideas in all their incarnations as they intersect culture and history. As an academic work, it is *full* of annotations, notes, and minutiae (in a good way). I stopped often to read the background of some of his points in context (many of them link to online resources which are accessible by anyone).
The author knows what he's talking about. He writes perceptively and quite chillingly of what's happened, what's currently happening, and what the possible outcomes are. In short, it *can* happen in the USA and pretending that it's completely impossible and unthinkable is a desperately dangerous ignorance which we can't afford.
Five stars. I learned quite a lot from this book. Much of it made me sad and angry. It was in no way an "easy" read. I would recommend it for library acquisition and also for readers of history and culture.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
caffeinecrow's review
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Racism, and Racial slurs
lene_kretzsch's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
1.5
DNF at 30%
Gah! I just couldn't take one more manufactured, unnatural, hopelessly cliched student/teacher dialogue.
Gah! I just couldn't take one more manufactured, unnatural, hopelessly cliched student/teacher dialogue.
lukescalone's review
4.0
This book was received as an ARC by the publisher on NetGalley.
Alexander Laban Hinton’s It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US is an interesting text that fits in the same tradition as other warnings about authoritarianism in the United States. However, unlike the bulk of the literature that has been released on the topic during the Trump years, Hinton’s work comes at the topic from the angle of genocide against the US’s ethnic and religious minorities.
As an anthropologist who spent the bulk of his career dedicated to examining the Cambodian Genocide by the Khmer Rouge, Hinton is placed in an interesting position where he is able to talk about the theory and practice of genocide without falling back on facile comparisons to the Holocaust. Additionally, the way Hinton approaches the text is captivating—he frames his lessons through the lens of classes that he teaches at Rutgers University-Newark, especially through anthropological “teach-ins” of current events. The benefit of this approach is that he recognizes the thought processes of students, including the questions and comments they make, while developing his answers and food for further thought as direct responses to those questions.
Hinton ultimately argues that “yes,” genocide by (white) Americans against ethno-racial minorities can take place. At the same time, Hinton finds that genocide is not a foregone conclusion and can be avoided with some effort. In his view, manufacturing a genocide is much like creating a fire: it requires a specific setting, tinder, a spark, and favorable weather conditions. While the setting and tinder both exist and favorable weather may have existed during the Trump years, a spark was not particularly forthcoming. In the past year, I also believe that the weather has worsened, making the prospect of genocide much less likely. In small part, this is due to the passing of the Trump administration, but I think last year’s hot summer played an important role in this. The largest number of Americans ever now believe that Black Lives Matter is a force for good and increasing numbers of Americans are educating themselves and coming to recognize that systemic racism has deep roots in American history, culture, and society. In short, Americans are (very slowly) becoming more sympathetic to the position of black Americans, and the same is true of attitudes towards Asian Americans in the wake of this spring’s heightened hostility towards them.
While I am deeply familiar with the content at hand, I continue to find it fascinating that the language of atrocity or genocide prevention is used to justify genocide. This was as true in the eighteenth and nineteenth century when Native Americans were slaughtered and expelled in order to prevent violence against white settlers, as it is today when white power activists argue that a show of overwhelming force is necessary to prevent “white genocide,” or the demographic “replacement” of white Americans. For some reason, these numbskull white power activists cannot fathom that the rise of mixed-race children, for instance, is the product of white men and women falling in love with a partner of a different race, rather than some brainwashing conspiracy. The same is true of the State Department’s Diversity Visa Program, where European applicants receive a disproportionate number of available visas in comparison to the number of visas available (they submit around 30% of applications and receive some 40-50% of visas available). It should be obvious to anyone capable of both quantitative and qualitative analysis that “white genocide” is bullshit.
The bulk of this book’s content focuses on events of 2017 and 2018, when the United States’s white power movement was at its most recent high, although Hinton spends plenty of time discussing the history and precedents of the most recent wave. Hinton’s narrow temporal focus is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, we receive a great deal of information about the propaganda campaigns and violent events perpetrated by white power activists in the years at hand. But, on the other, Hinton’s skimming of the events of 2019-20 means that his line to the present is a bit weak (although 2017 was only four years ago, it feels like a decade due to the ludicrous sequences of events and “flattening” of our perspectives of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Another weakness is that, although the “teach-in” angle makes the book approachable, it is easy to become overwhelmed with some of the anthropology/comparative genocide jargon that the author uses.
Nevertheless, It Can Happen Here is a welcome contribution to the literature about contemporary extreme-right and white power activism.
Alexander Laban Hinton’s It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US is an interesting text that fits in the same tradition as other warnings about authoritarianism in the United States. However, unlike the bulk of the literature that has been released on the topic during the Trump years, Hinton’s work comes at the topic from the angle of genocide against the US’s ethnic and religious minorities.
As an anthropologist who spent the bulk of his career dedicated to examining the Cambodian Genocide by the Khmer Rouge, Hinton is placed in an interesting position where he is able to talk about the theory and practice of genocide without falling back on facile comparisons to the Holocaust. Additionally, the way Hinton approaches the text is captivating—he frames his lessons through the lens of classes that he teaches at Rutgers University-Newark, especially through anthropological “teach-ins” of current events. The benefit of this approach is that he recognizes the thought processes of students, including the questions and comments they make, while developing his answers and food for further thought as direct responses to those questions.
Hinton ultimately argues that “yes,” genocide by (white) Americans against ethno-racial minorities can take place. At the same time, Hinton finds that genocide is not a foregone conclusion and can be avoided with some effort. In his view, manufacturing a genocide is much like creating a fire: it requires a specific setting, tinder, a spark, and favorable weather conditions. While the setting and tinder both exist and favorable weather may have existed during the Trump years, a spark was not particularly forthcoming. In the past year, I also believe that the weather has worsened, making the prospect of genocide much less likely. In small part, this is due to the passing of the Trump administration, but I think last year’s hot summer played an important role in this. The largest number of Americans ever now believe that Black Lives Matter is a force for good and increasing numbers of Americans are educating themselves and coming to recognize that systemic racism has deep roots in American history, culture, and society. In short, Americans are (very slowly) becoming more sympathetic to the position of black Americans, and the same is true of attitudes towards Asian Americans in the wake of this spring’s heightened hostility towards them.
While I am deeply familiar with the content at hand, I continue to find it fascinating that the language of atrocity or genocide prevention is used to justify genocide. This was as true in the eighteenth and nineteenth century when Native Americans were slaughtered and expelled in order to prevent violence against white settlers, as it is today when white power activists argue that a show of overwhelming force is necessary to prevent “white genocide,” or the demographic “replacement” of white Americans. For some reason, these numbskull white power activists cannot fathom that the rise of mixed-race children, for instance, is the product of white men and women falling in love with a partner of a different race, rather than some brainwashing conspiracy. The same is true of the State Department’s Diversity Visa Program, where European applicants receive a disproportionate number of available visas in comparison to the number of visas available (they submit around 30% of applications and receive some 40-50% of visas available). It should be obvious to anyone capable of both quantitative and qualitative analysis that “white genocide” is bullshit.
The bulk of this book’s content focuses on events of 2017 and 2018, when the United States’s white power movement was at its most recent high, although Hinton spends plenty of time discussing the history and precedents of the most recent wave. Hinton’s narrow temporal focus is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, we receive a great deal of information about the propaganda campaigns and violent events perpetrated by white power activists in the years at hand. But, on the other, Hinton’s skimming of the events of 2019-20 means that his line to the present is a bit weak (although 2017 was only four years ago, it feels like a decade due to the ludicrous sequences of events and “flattening” of our perspectives of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Another weakness is that, although the “teach-in” angle makes the book approachable, it is easy to become overwhelmed with some of the anthropology/comparative genocide jargon that the author uses.
Nevertheless, It Can Happen Here is a welcome contribution to the literature about contemporary extreme-right and white power activism.
raechel's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A little dry but I enjoyed the classroom conversation format. It's important to stay educated and keep learning and while I wouldn't recommend this for someone just delving into America's racist roots, it is good for anyone familiar with some of the concepts.
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