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Understanding the Enemy: Verso Student Reading on the Far Right

Books on authoritarianism, fascism and the far-right from across 50 years of radical publishing.

Verso Books22 August 2023

Understanding the Enemy: Verso Student Reading on the Far Right

There has been an unmistakable rise in far right politics across the world, with right wing movements gaining a political hold across the global north and south. Are far right movements an inescapable feature of capitalism?

These readings bring together reflections on past fascist movements as well the rise of the new right. 

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See all our recommended Student Reading here.

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  • The Authoritarian Personality

    The Authoritarian Personality

    by Theodor Adorno

    What makes a fascist? Are there character traits that make someone more likely to vote for the far right? The Authoritarian Personality, written in the shadow of Fascism and the Holocaust, looked t...
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  • Minima Moralia

    Minima Moralia

    by Theodor Adorno

    Translated by Edmund F.N. Jephcott

    Written between 1944 and 1947, Minima Moralia is a collection of rich, lucid aphorisms and essays about life in modern capitalist society. Adorno casts his penetrating eye across society in mid-cen...
  • The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe

    The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe

    by Dylan Riley

    Drawing on a Gramscian theoretical perspective and developing a systematic comparative approach, The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe challenges the received Tocquevillian consensus on author...
    Paperback

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  • Dialectic of Enlightenment

    Dialectic of Enlightenment

    by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer

    Contributions by John Cumming

    Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer are the leading figures of the Frankfurt School and this book is their magnum opus. Dialectic of Enlightenment is one of the most celebrated works of modern social...
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  • Fascism and Dictatorship

    Fascism and Dictatorship

    by Nicos Poulantzas

    Foreword by Dylan Riley

    Translated by Judith White

    The resurgence of the far right across Europe and the emergence of the “alt-right” in the US have put the question of fascism urgently back on the agenda. For those trying to understand these forms...
    Paperback

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  • The Notion of Authority

    The Notion of Authority

    by Alexandre Kojève

    Introduction by Francois Terré

    Edited by Francois Terré

    Translated by Hager Weslati

    In The Notion of Authority, written in the 1940s in Nazi-occupied France, Alexandre Kojève uncovers the conceptual premises of four primary models of authority, examining the practical application ...
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  • Ruling the Void

    Ruling the Void

    by Peter Mair

    Introduction by Chris Bickerton

    The age of party democracy has passed, argues Peter Mair in Ruling the Void. The major parties have become so disconnected from society that they no longer seem capable of sustaining democracy in i...
  • Fire and Blood

    Fire and Blood

    by Enzo Traverso

    Translated by David Fernbach

    Fire and Blood looks at the European crisis of the two world wars as a single historical sequence: the age of the European Civil War (1914–1945). Its overture was played out in the trenches of the ...
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  • Hatred of Democracy

    Hatred of Democracy

    by Jacques Rancière

    Translated by Steve Corcoran

    In this vehement defence of democracy, Jacques Rancière explodes the complacency of Western politicians who pride themselves as the defenders of political freedom. As America and its allies use t...
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