Homeland: Into a World of Hate [Hardcover]

As a powerful, and sometimes downright disturbing, introduction to the lives of those in the radical right, it's unequalled. What it's not is an essay or historical analysis of the growth of right-wing extremism. Then again, the author never claims it is. It's clearly a standalone journey, as much Ryan's story as that of the people he meets.

If you want to know who the people actually are behind the burgeoning right-wing movements, 'Homeland' is the place to find them. The links between the lowliest 'lone wolf', to the most elevated political figures, are sometimes startling, particularly when Ryan deals finds himself invited out to Beirut for an international conference of Holocaust deniers. It can't have been easy going on some of these journeys.

The book is also written in a series of pacey, gripping vignettes, more like a novel at times than non-fiction. But I found this made it an easier read: at over 300 pages, I finished it during one long weekend!

Overall, 'Homeland' is a furious, unsettling - but I would say essential - book, in which the writer clearly threw a part of himself. As a study of the underbelly of modern society, and frustrated identity, I would highly recommend it to anyone curious about our times.

Ryan’s journey starts in London where he meets members of secretive right wing extremist groups such as Combat 18 (18 because of the position of Adolph Hitler’s initials in the alphabet). These small size groups are nonetheless powerful and thrive on fear and violence. They are often associated with football and a music scene that conveys their ideology and which provide them with an important source of income.

In this universe, the British National Party is the clean and presentable face of a movement whose roots dive deeper into the Nation and the Western World. At the heart of these movements, Ryan meets up with your “white next-door neighbour”, usually a single young man who is looking for simple answers to the questions of life and identity.

Lost in a world whose values and customs are increasingly varied and entangled, our white supremacist is looking for moral guidance and a sense to give to his life. He is in need of beliefs, craving to belong to a community.

Ryan’s first chapters are not an easy read mainly because he decided to blend narratives and dialogues. However, this helps us remembering that we are here facing real individuals and not imaginary monsters. Pass the first sixty pages and the journey kicks off. Ryan meets more and more people involved in the dark side of the western civilisation and starts to earn their trust. This long and painful process (both professionally and personally) will open many doors that would have remained closed to many lounge-investigators.

Nick Ryan will ultimately be introduced to some of the white supremacists “thinkers”. They are recluse or outsiders but can also be very public figures such as Pat Buchanan who entered the US presidential election. Ryan describes how they feel ignored by the politics, their voice unheard and their feeling of being powerless. Therefore, it becomes a sense of duty to protect the white race, to act even if this means violence because the political system and the society do not offer any other choice. Ryan’s interlocutors define their way as being outside conventional politics and the old concept of Right and Left. This is a way which concern is to save the White race endangered by other “lower cultures”.

During this journey Ryan is crossing from one world to another and is undergoing a maturation process. He will sometimes becomes friend with the people he meets and interviews and realise that it is not all black and white even in a White world.

By the end of his odyssey, Ryan is back to where the right wing movements are the most developed, East Germany. Shouldn’t that be extremely worrying that these extremists movements are booming and thriving in the country that invented and put into action the principle of National Socialism?

Ryan’s writing is both informative and emotionally powerful. This is not an essay on nationalism or white supremacist movement but a personal journey, a document, a piece that can be used to expose the real driving force behind racism and nationalism.

One of the many merits of Ryan’s book is that it provides a useful resource to understand these extremist’s beliefs and respond to them. It is an edifying piece of work about a rising phenomenon becoming more and more acceptable and a different approach prompting a justified comparison to Orwell’s journey to Wigan.