https://panopticonreview.blogspot.com/2026/07/important-new-books_01484786762.html 
'I cannot recommend it enough. A stunning work of data analysis proving the genocide incitement perpetrated by legacy liberal media'
–Matthew Remski, co-author of Conspirituality
'A painstakingly detailed indictment of the Fourth Estate, showing how cable shows, newspapers, and online news sites helped build support for the mass killing of Palestinians'
'Powerful .. an empirically rich critique of the full horror of the performance of American journalism on Gaza.'
'How to Sell a Genocide vividly and meticulously demonstrates the power of narrative and the powers involved in shaping them... Through painstaking documentation over a 12-month period, Johnson shows how anti-Palestinian racism among elite liberals and liberal institutions constituted "Moats of Rationalization" that primed Western audiences for genocide.'
–Noura Erakat, Human rights attorney and author of Justice For Some
'Read this book'
–As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University
'Sobering and frightening … How to Sell a Genocide reveals how US media sold Israel's destruction of Gaza to liberal audiences'
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His writing has been featured in The Nation, In These Times, The Intercept, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle.
The Secret War Against Hate: American Resistance To Antisemitism and White Supremacy
by Steven J. Ross
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026
[Publication date: April 28, 2026] 
REVIEWS:
"Phillips-Fein is a graceful writer and balletic thinker; her opening paragraph tucked me into its palm and held me rapt, right through to its conclusion. Her book is slender… but her argument has vast implications for the future of the nation-state, centering the perils of inequality as global capitalism, boosted by AI, asserts its own independence from the rest of us."
"Enlightening and shocking. The brilliant historian Kim Phillips-Fein delivers a necessary history of the scandalous but tenacious resistance to the emancipation Americans still need."
― Samuel Moyn, Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University and author of The Last Utopia
"An audacious argument that the American intellectual tradition is composed of not just egalitarian principles but also of many anti-democratic ones. With care and erudition, Country of Lords shows that the excesses of today’s far right intelligentsia are far from new."
― Alissa Quart, author of Bootstrapped
"With an artful pen and a breezy style, Kim Phillips-Fein takes the reader on a revealing tour of the ideas and people inhabiting a dark and under-recognized continuity in American history: those committed to values that are too often seen as “un-American” but whose thought and power we ignore at our peril. An eye-opening read."
― Jefferson Cowie, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Freedom's Dominion
"Both timely and necessary, this book describes the evolution and persistence of anti-Enlightenment apologias for political and material inequality that today, more than ever, threaten core American values, morals, and democracy itself."
― David Nasaw, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Wounded Generation
"Powerful, expansive, and penetrating, Country of Lords confounds our assumptions about America’s political traditions and sensibilities. Reaching back to the world of the founders and far ahead to that of the tech titans, it demands a new type of reckoning."
― Steven Hahn, author of Illiberal America
"With energy and thoughtful scholarship, Kim Phillips-Fein, one of our most gifted historians, explains why every generation has had to fight to keep the egalitarian hopes at the foundations of our republic alive."
― E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Why Americans Hate Politics
"Kim Philips-Fein has dug deep into US history and excavated a rogues gallery of men with bad, mad and even dangerous ideas. If you want to understand where we are today, this lively―and sobering―intellectual history will help."
― Dr. Anya Schiffrin, editor of Media Capture in the Digital Age
"Striking... a rousing and worrisome counter-history of a uniquely American strain of anti-democratic political thought."
― Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The Pulitzer finalist charts the long history of the American political conviction that all people are not created equal."
― Publishers Weekly, "Spring 2026 Preview: History Top Ten"
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kim Phillips-Fein is Robert Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History at Columbia University. She is the author of Fear City, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Invisible Hands. She lives in New York City.
From the Introduction:
Today, wealth and income in the United States have become more unequally distributed than they have been in a century. Our country is the most economically unequal of all developed nations.¹ And a small group of extraordinarily wealthy people exercise a vast and disproportionate power over our political and economic life.
Openly anti-egalitarian ideas are flourishing.
Why is this?
As I've looked at the archives, at the documents and the arguments that have shaped our history, what I have found is troubling and surprising: a shadow tradition of extreme inequality. Many interpretations of the right in America today focus on cultural and economic conflicts of recent origin.
This book points to a different source of strength for the right today, and its roots are in a particular constellation of ideas. The tradition outlined in this book is an openly elitist one that sees working people as essentially inferior to the rich, their financial hardships the result of their innate inequalities. This belief in the basic need for hierarchy and in the inferiority of the working class runs throughout American history (and it appears, with variations, around the world).
Footprints: A Black Journalist’s Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa and in Exile
by Lionel Morrison and Liz Morrison
Haymarket Books, 2026
[Publication date: June 9, 2026]
by Lionel Morrison and Liz Morrison
Haymarket Books, 2026
[Publication date: June 9, 2026]
With sharp intellect and warm humor, Lionel Morrison tells the story of the struggle for freedom in South Africa and beyond, revealing the intimate experience of grand geopolitical shifts
Apartheid in South Africa was arbitrary and ferocious―its end is widely celebrated. Yet the monumental difficulties faced by the movement for liberation and the sacrifices made by ordinary yet remarkable individuals have been hidden in the broad sweep of time.
Celebrated journalist Lionel Morrison brings this history to life, honoring his forgotten comrades. He shares memories as a defendant in the Treason Trial and of periods in prison before being forced to flee South Africa as a stowaway, meeting leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, the heady days of pan-African and Asian nationalism, and fighting racism in Britain.
Completed by Liz Morrison after her husband’s death, Footprints is an ode to community, truth, and resistance.
REVIEWS:
"A deeply moving and inspiring portrait, from inside and out, of a trailblazer, a radical, and a true internationalist."
―China Miéville, author of A Spectre, Haunting
"Footprints doesn’t shy away from the failures and defeats of the “Bandung era” or the tenacity of racism in Britain. But Morrison’s life is a testament to the power of journalism when it is committed to the cause of liberation."
―Kevin Ochieng Okoth, author of Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics (2023)
"Anti-apartheid activist and journalist Lionel Morrison’s footprints are embedded in South Africa’s long walk to freedom. Lionel died before he could bring his memoir to life but wife and intellectual companion Liz Morrison has brought together the missing pieces – she is the sum of Lionel’s parts. From Cape Town to Kensal Rise, walk alongside them."
―Atiha Sen Gupta, playwright and screenwriter
"This is a marvellous book – the testimony of a clever and brave black journalist who always managed to be at the centre of events and reported on them with unflinching clarity, in simple, luminous language, always putting human beings at the centre of his story.
―Francis Beckett, author, journalist and playwright
"Footprints is an extraordinary book about an extraordinary man, Lionel Morrison, who fought against the colonial system in South Africa and later racism in the UK, while engaged in international trade union work supporting workers of the global south. It is also extraordinary because the book is a collaborative labor of love with his wife Liz, who completed it after Lionel died. The blending of these two voices is a marvel to read.
―Mathatha Tsedu, South African journalist
"After passing his formative political years fighting apartheid in South Africa―including being arrested and tried―Lionel Morrison left for England and immediately threw himself into activism, championing the struggle against racial inequality. Morrison led the National Union of Journalists as its first black president, and forged an architecture within the union that ushered in long-lasting changes benefiting Black journalists for generations to come."
―Jim Boumelha, former president of the International Federation of Journalists
"Given all that Lionel had been through―prison time under apartheid, the proximity to state-sponsored slaughter in Indonesia, trade union and anti-racist struggles in Britain―he could have been forgiven for being bitter or braggadocious. He would have been within his rights to explain that your travails were trivial compared with what he encountered. But, whatever toll these experiences did have on him, that was not his way. The stories he did tell might be funny or even dark, but he always shared to engage, not to make himself bigger or you smaller."
―from the foreword by Gary Younge
"The South African-born British journalist Lionel Morrison, who was jailed for anti-apartheid activism and even stood trial for treason, spent his life covering struggles for equality the world over. Morrison eventually passed away in 2016. Completed by his partner Liz, Footprints: A Black Journalist’s Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa and in Exile tells the story of Morrison’s life, including his time at the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle, the rise of pan-African nationalism, and the rebellious days of the UK’s anti-racist and labor struggles."
―Inkstick, Most Anticipated Books of 2026
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Lionel Morrison was a South African journalist and pan-Africanist. Along with 155 others including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, Morrison was tried for treason in 1956. Following his exile from South Africa, he embraced Sukarno’s Indonesia, moved to China and was politically active across Africa before returning to Britain. His life's work focused on journalism, trade unionism, and housing activism. He was the first black president of the National Union of Journalists in Britain.
Liz Morrison was born in England and is white. She was a community worker in the 1960s and a social worker. She has been actively supportive of the anti-apartheid movement for justice in South Africa and is active in supporting Palestine.
How To Sell A Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza
by Adam H. Johnson
Pluto Press, 2026
[Publication date: April 21, 2026]
Apartheid in South Africa was arbitrary and ferocious―its end is widely celebrated. Yet the monumental difficulties faced by the movement for liberation and the sacrifices made by ordinary yet remarkable individuals have been hidden in the broad sweep of time.
Celebrated journalist Lionel Morrison brings this history to life, honoring his forgotten comrades. He shares memories as a defendant in the Treason Trial and of periods in prison before being forced to flee South Africa as a stowaway, meeting leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, the heady days of pan-African and Asian nationalism, and fighting racism in Britain.
Completed by Liz Morrison after her husband’s death, Footprints is an ode to community, truth, and resistance.
REVIEWS:
"A deeply moving and inspiring portrait, from inside and out, of a trailblazer, a radical, and a true internationalist."
―China Miéville, author of A Spectre, Haunting
"Footprints doesn’t shy away from the failures and defeats of the “Bandung era” or the tenacity of racism in Britain. But Morrison’s life is a testament to the power of journalism when it is committed to the cause of liberation."
―Kevin Ochieng Okoth, author of Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics (2023)
"Anti-apartheid activist and journalist Lionel Morrison’s footprints are embedded in South Africa’s long walk to freedom. Lionel died before he could bring his memoir to life but wife and intellectual companion Liz Morrison has brought together the missing pieces – she is the sum of Lionel’s parts. From Cape Town to Kensal Rise, walk alongside them."
―Atiha Sen Gupta, playwright and screenwriter
"This is a marvellous book – the testimony of a clever and brave black journalist who always managed to be at the centre of events and reported on them with unflinching clarity, in simple, luminous language, always putting human beings at the centre of his story.
―Francis Beckett, author, journalist and playwright
"Footprints is an extraordinary book about an extraordinary man, Lionel Morrison, who fought against the colonial system in South Africa and later racism in the UK, while engaged in international trade union work supporting workers of the global south. It is also extraordinary because the book is a collaborative labor of love with his wife Liz, who completed it after Lionel died. The blending of these two voices is a marvel to read.
―Mathatha Tsedu, South African journalist
"After passing his formative political years fighting apartheid in South Africa―including being arrested and tried―Lionel Morrison left for England and immediately threw himself into activism, championing the struggle against racial inequality. Morrison led the National Union of Journalists as its first black president, and forged an architecture within the union that ushered in long-lasting changes benefiting Black journalists for generations to come."
―Jim Boumelha, former president of the International Federation of Journalists
"Given all that Lionel had been through―prison time under apartheid, the proximity to state-sponsored slaughter in Indonesia, trade union and anti-racist struggles in Britain―he could have been forgiven for being bitter or braggadocious. He would have been within his rights to explain that your travails were trivial compared with what he encountered. But, whatever toll these experiences did have on him, that was not his way. The stories he did tell might be funny or even dark, but he always shared to engage, not to make himself bigger or you smaller."
―from the foreword by Gary Younge
"The South African-born British journalist Lionel Morrison, who was jailed for anti-apartheid activism and even stood trial for treason, spent his life covering struggles for equality the world over. Morrison eventually passed away in 2016. Completed by his partner Liz, Footprints: A Black Journalist’s Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa and in Exile tells the story of Morrison’s life, including his time at the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle, the rise of pan-African nationalism, and the rebellious days of the UK’s anti-racist and labor struggles."
―Inkstick, Most Anticipated Books of 2026
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Lionel Morrison was a South African journalist and pan-Africanist. Along with 155 others including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, Morrison was tried for treason in 1956. Following his exile from South Africa, he embraced Sukarno’s Indonesia, moved to China and was politically active across Africa before returning to Britain. His life's work focused on journalism, trade unionism, and housing activism. He was the first black president of the National Union of Journalists in Britain.
Liz Morrison was born in England and is white. She was a community worker in the 1960s and a social worker. She has been actively supportive of the anti-apartheid movement for justice in South Africa and is active in supporting Palestine.
How To Sell A Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza
by Adam H. Johnson
Pluto Press, 2026
[Publication date: April 21, 2026]
“Vivid and meticulous ... Through painstaking documentation, Johnson shows how anti-Palestinian racism among elite liberals and liberal institutions primed Western audiences for genocide” from the foreword by Noura Erakat, author of Justice for Some
As bombs rained down on Gaza in October 2023, images of mass death and destruction gripped the world, and openly genocidal statements from Israeli leaders foretold the magnitude of horrors to come. But the US media was quick to downplay, obscure, and repackage an emerging campaign of extermination into a slick “war on terror” framework.
How to Sell a Genocide is an indictment of the US corporate media’s role in enabling―and, at times, directly inciting―one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in modern memory. Johnson unpacks how major news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC systematically sanitized Israel’s war crimes, hid the US’s central role, and dehumanized the Palestinian people.
Drawing from deep, original data-driven analysis, Johnson dissects the mechanics of propaganda, from the selective empathy, strategic omissions, overt racism, and repetition of state-sanctioned falsehoods, to the demonization of humanitarian workers and dishonest coverage of campus protests. With clarity and moral force, Johnson argues that the genocide could not have been sustained without the active, ongoing complicity of the US media.
All royalties from the book will be donated to the Middle East Children’s Alliance.
Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His writing has been featured in the Nation, In These Times, the Intercept, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle.
REVIEWS:
'Really, really moving. What Adam Johnson is doing there is he's forensically documenting the way in which people reported the Gaza War. Everything from the adjectives they use, the way they described the two combatants, the amount of attention they paid to casualties on the Israeli side compared to the Palestinian side'
–-Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge and co-host of The Rest is Politics
'Compelling .. a very interesting, challenging read'
–Alastair Campbell, co-host of The Rest Is Politics
'So intelligent. Johnson's commentary is so good'
–Briahna Joy Gray, host of the Bad Faith podcast
'One of the more important books about politics you're going to read this year'
–Perry Bacon, New Republic
'Brilliant … this is such a crucial book, and it's a book that had to be written. Everyone go and get it'
–Owen Jones
'A great read. It has a ton of empirical analysis data as well as just stories of what was going on in some of these newsrooms that you probably haven't read or encountered elsewhere. It's a really useful tool for folks who are still trying to change the minds of folks around them, to help them really understand how freaking propagandized they are if this is the kind of media they are consuming'
–Jared Ware, co-host of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
'This is a really vital volume for seeing through media reporting from October 2023 to the present day'
As bombs rained down on Gaza in October 2023, images of mass death and destruction gripped the world, and openly genocidal statements from Israeli leaders foretold the magnitude of horrors to come. But the US media was quick to downplay, obscure, and repackage an emerging campaign of extermination into a slick “war on terror” framework.
How to Sell a Genocide is an indictment of the US corporate media’s role in enabling―and, at times, directly inciting―one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in modern memory. Johnson unpacks how major news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC systematically sanitized Israel’s war crimes, hid the US’s central role, and dehumanized the Palestinian people.
Drawing from deep, original data-driven analysis, Johnson dissects the mechanics of propaganda, from the selective empathy, strategic omissions, overt racism, and repetition of state-sanctioned falsehoods, to the demonization of humanitarian workers and dishonest coverage of campus protests. With clarity and moral force, Johnson argues that the genocide could not have been sustained without the active, ongoing complicity of the US media.
All royalties from the book will be donated to the Middle East Children’s Alliance.
Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His writing has been featured in the Nation, In These Times, the Intercept, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle.
REVIEWS:
'Really, really moving. What Adam Johnson is doing there is he's forensically documenting the way in which people reported the Gaza War. Everything from the adjectives they use, the way they described the two combatants, the amount of attention they paid to casualties on the Israeli side compared to the Palestinian side'
–-Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge and co-host of The Rest is Politics
'Compelling .. a very interesting, challenging read'
–Alastair Campbell, co-host of The Rest Is Politics
'So intelligent. Johnson's commentary is so good'
–Briahna Joy Gray, host of the Bad Faith podcast
'One of the more important books about politics you're going to read this year'
–Perry Bacon, New Republic
'Brilliant … this is such a crucial book, and it's a book that had to be written. Everyone go and get it'
–Owen Jones
'A great read. It has a ton of empirical analysis data as well as just stories of what was going on in some of these newsrooms that you probably haven't read or encountered elsewhere. It's a really useful tool for folks who are still trying to change the minds of folks around them, to help them really understand how freaking propagandized they are if this is the kind of media they are consuming'
–Jared Ware, co-host of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
'This is a really vital volume for seeing through media reporting from October 2023 to the present day'
–Nathan Robinson, Current Affairs
'I cannot recommend it enough. A stunning work of data analysis proving the genocide incitement perpetrated by legacy liberal media'
–Matthew Remski, co-author of Conspirituality
'A painstakingly detailed indictment of the Fourth Estate, showing how cable shows, newspapers, and online news sites helped build support for the mass killing of Palestinians'
–Mondoweiss
'Powerful .. an empirically rich critique of the full horror of the performance of American journalism on Gaza.'
–Counterfire
'How to Sell a Genocide vividly and meticulously demonstrates the power of narrative and the powers involved in shaping them... Through painstaking documentation over a 12-month period, Johnson shows how anti-Palestinian racism among elite liberals and liberal institutions constituted "Moats of Rationalization" that primed Western audiences for genocide.'
–Noura Erakat, Human rights attorney and author of Justice For Some
'Read this book'
–As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University
'Sobering and frightening … How to Sell a Genocide reveals how US media sold Israel's destruction of Gaza to liberal audiences'
–The New Arab
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His writing has been featured in The Nation, In These Times, The Intercept, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle.
The Secret War Against Hate: American Resistance To Antisemitism and White Supremacy
by Steven J. Ross
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026
[Publication date: April 28, 2026]
A USA Today Bestseller
From the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Hitler in Los Angeles, the definitive story of the intrepid activists and spies who fought against a resurgent movement of hate in America-a book that "should be read by every American who wants to know how courageous men and women can resist hatred." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
Americans today like to believe that the end of World War II brought a new era of tolerance in the United States. But antisemitism and racism went up-not down-after the war's end. Violence broke out in cities across the country, and the number of organized hate groups more than doubled from 1940 to 1946. In this shocking account of a resurgence of White Supremacy in America, celebrated historian Steven J. Ross reveals how four key leaders-Emory Burke, J. B. Stoner, James Madole, and George Lincoln Rockwell-worked together to “finish the job Hitler had begun,” launching deadly attacks on Jews and African Americans and building a network of terrorists across the U.S. In response to this “war of hate,” three men-Arnold Forster of the Anti-Defamation League, George Mintzer of the American Jewish Committee, and James Sheldon of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League-along with dozens of men and women, launched a multipronged effort: They infiltrated, monitored, and undermined these hate groups, putting their own safety on the line and scoring important victories that, today, have been all but forgotten.
Tracing the extraordinary work of these unsung heroes, The Secret War Against Hate provides a groundbreaking reconsideration of the legacy of the “Good War,” and essential reading on how America today can beat hate once again and build a just and united nation.
REVIEWS:
“Richly researched, impressively annotated, burningly bright . . . this book takes readers through familiar times and places with fresh research and a vivid narrative style . . . Personality and media strode hand in hand then, much as now, and Ross alerts us to the deep and ugly history behind today's trolls and truants . . . This book should be read by every American who wants to know how courageous men and women can resist hatred.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Well-researched and at times shocking . . . Ross weaves the timelines of these figures together in an easy-to-follow way, showing how they gained power but also highlighting the people and organizations who actively fought against them in public and in spy rings, who each had their own motivations for resisting fascism. Readers will get sucked into the story and want to know what happens next . . . An excellent 'hidden history' book that gives additional context to modern political movements.” ―Library Journal, starred review
“Ross's work is utterly immersive in its sweeping, decades-long tracing of how some Americans have resisted the contagion of hate . . . [The Secret War Against Hate is] vital for any citizen concerned with polarized politics and civic abuses . . . an indispensable manual for safeguarding the future by understanding threats from the past.” ―Shelf Awareness, starred review
“At a time of renewed interest in America's previous fights with fascism, no one has done more than Steven J. Ross to unearth the epic conflicts and characters at the heart of that history. In The Secret War Against Hate, Ross has found a startling new chapter of our history, surfacing villains worthy of any Hollywood horror franchise, and intrepid heroes whose exploits could be written into a national anthem. This book will be taught and read for decades; the more we learn from it, the stronger we will be for the fights ahead, and for the fights already at hand. A brilliant history, a brilliant story. Bravo” ―Rachel Maddow, New York Times bestselling author of PREQUEL
“Ross has written an engrossing, informative, and timely history of the hate groups that energized the far right in the early postwar decades, the anti-hate organizations that infiltrated them, and the spies who gathered information from (and fomented dissent among) those who hate.” ―Washington Independent Review of Books
“Fascinating . . . Ross observes that movements and leaders come and go, but ideas persist. Even ideas as thoroughly debunked as white supremacy, or that America was always intended to be a country for whites alone, remain as emotionally and politically charged today as they were immediately after World War II.” ―California Review of Books
“[An] absorbing study of the brave Americans who fought homegrown Nazism . . . A captivating read.” ―The Irish Independent
“With power and deep insight, Steven Ross has given us the harrowing story of postwar domestic fascism-dripping with racism and antisemitism-and the determined organizations and people who sought to expose its ambitions and defeat it. Eye-opening in content, The Secret War Against Hate is a must-read for anyone interested in the roots of today's radical right and the prospects for resistance to it.” ―Steven Hahn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A NATION UNDER OUR FEET and ILLIBERAL AMERICA
“Steven Ross's timely and impressively researched book draws a through line of the anti-Semitism that emerged in America in the wake of the Holocaust, continued in various iterations, and has reemerged in our day. He paints vivid portraits of the fanatics, dupes, scoundrels and blood-thirsty loonies who peopled the American fascist movements and of those who worked courageously to defeat them. This history of hate and heroic resistance to hate is chilling, inspiring, and vital reading.” ―Lillian Faderman, author of NAKED IN THE PROMISED LAND and THE GAY REVOLUTION
“Steven Ross's narrative about the Americans who fought to expose and defeat the neo-fascist right in the decades after World War II is highly original, full of insight, and an utterly compelling read. Anyone who wants to understand the roots of the hatemongers who befoul our politics today should read this book.” ―Michael Kazin, author of WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN: A HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
“In his gripping new book, Steven J. Ross unflinchingly examines American Hitlerism and efforts to expose it. Recent events bring home tragically the pertinence of Ross's instructive narrative.” ―Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
“In this revelatory study, Steven Ross brings out of the shadows a series of far right agitators who have remained largely unknown to both professional scholars and the general public. He convincingly reveals that a fascist tradition has always existed in the United States, while compellingly showing how ordinary Americans have worked to counteract it. Combining original research and sober analysis, the book could not be more timely.” ―Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, author of THE FOURTH REICH: THE SPECTER OF NAZISM FROM WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT
“Set against the backdrop of postwar America, Steven Ross's meticulously researched and engaging narrative illuminates the increasingly pernicious development of White Supremacy and rightwing extremism, and those few organizations and individuals who worked to limit the impact of illiberal forces. He outlines, like few before him, the precedents that frame many of the present-day debates on whether the US should remain an inclusive democracy or revert to atavistic society that limits opportunities for those outside the majority. Despite heroic efforts by civil society to keep these forces at bay after 1945, Ross notes rightly that extremist leaders might pass, “but ideas persist forever.” Understanding the origins of today's extremisms, the approaches that proved successful in resisting them, and how this past shapes our future make The Secret War Against Hate an indispensable and important contribution to the field” ―Robert J. Williams, CEO and Finci-Viterbi Chair of the USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Steven J. Ross is a Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. He is the author of Hitler in Los Angeles, a Los Angeles Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Hollywood Left and Right, which received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Film Scholars Award, and Working-Class Hollywood, named a Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Southern California.
COUNTRY OF LORDS: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
by Kim Phillips-Fein
W.W. Norton and Company, 2026
[Publication date: July 21, 2026]
From the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Hitler in Los Angeles, the definitive story of the intrepid activists and spies who fought against a resurgent movement of hate in America-a book that "should be read by every American who wants to know how courageous men and women can resist hatred." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
Americans today like to believe that the end of World War II brought a new era of tolerance in the United States. But antisemitism and racism went up-not down-after the war's end. Violence broke out in cities across the country, and the number of organized hate groups more than doubled from 1940 to 1946. In this shocking account of a resurgence of White Supremacy in America, celebrated historian Steven J. Ross reveals how four key leaders-Emory Burke, J. B. Stoner, James Madole, and George Lincoln Rockwell-worked together to “finish the job Hitler had begun,” launching deadly attacks on Jews and African Americans and building a network of terrorists across the U.S. In response to this “war of hate,” three men-Arnold Forster of the Anti-Defamation League, George Mintzer of the American Jewish Committee, and James Sheldon of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League-along with dozens of men and women, launched a multipronged effort: They infiltrated, monitored, and undermined these hate groups, putting their own safety on the line and scoring important victories that, today, have been all but forgotten.
Tracing the extraordinary work of these unsung heroes, The Secret War Against Hate provides a groundbreaking reconsideration of the legacy of the “Good War,” and essential reading on how America today can beat hate once again and build a just and united nation.
REVIEWS:
“Richly researched, impressively annotated, burningly bright . . . this book takes readers through familiar times and places with fresh research and a vivid narrative style . . . Personality and media strode hand in hand then, much as now, and Ross alerts us to the deep and ugly history behind today's trolls and truants . . . This book should be read by every American who wants to know how courageous men and women can resist hatred.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Well-researched and at times shocking . . . Ross weaves the timelines of these figures together in an easy-to-follow way, showing how they gained power but also highlighting the people and organizations who actively fought against them in public and in spy rings, who each had their own motivations for resisting fascism. Readers will get sucked into the story and want to know what happens next . . . An excellent 'hidden history' book that gives additional context to modern political movements.” ―Library Journal, starred review
“Ross's work is utterly immersive in its sweeping, decades-long tracing of how some Americans have resisted the contagion of hate . . . [The Secret War Against Hate is] vital for any citizen concerned with polarized politics and civic abuses . . . an indispensable manual for safeguarding the future by understanding threats from the past.” ―Shelf Awareness, starred review
“At a time of renewed interest in America's previous fights with fascism, no one has done more than Steven J. Ross to unearth the epic conflicts and characters at the heart of that history. In The Secret War Against Hate, Ross has found a startling new chapter of our history, surfacing villains worthy of any Hollywood horror franchise, and intrepid heroes whose exploits could be written into a national anthem. This book will be taught and read for decades; the more we learn from it, the stronger we will be for the fights ahead, and for the fights already at hand. A brilliant history, a brilliant story. Bravo” ―Rachel Maddow, New York Times bestselling author of PREQUEL
“Ross has written an engrossing, informative, and timely history of the hate groups that energized the far right in the early postwar decades, the anti-hate organizations that infiltrated them, and the spies who gathered information from (and fomented dissent among) those who hate.” ―Washington Independent Review of Books
“Fascinating . . . Ross observes that movements and leaders come and go, but ideas persist. Even ideas as thoroughly debunked as white supremacy, or that America was always intended to be a country for whites alone, remain as emotionally and politically charged today as they were immediately after World War II.” ―California Review of Books
“[An] absorbing study of the brave Americans who fought homegrown Nazism . . . A captivating read.” ―The Irish Independent
“With power and deep insight, Steven Ross has given us the harrowing story of postwar domestic fascism-dripping with racism and antisemitism-and the determined organizations and people who sought to expose its ambitions and defeat it. Eye-opening in content, The Secret War Against Hate is a must-read for anyone interested in the roots of today's radical right and the prospects for resistance to it.” ―Steven Hahn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A NATION UNDER OUR FEET and ILLIBERAL AMERICA
“Steven Ross's timely and impressively researched book draws a through line of the anti-Semitism that emerged in America in the wake of the Holocaust, continued in various iterations, and has reemerged in our day. He paints vivid portraits of the fanatics, dupes, scoundrels and blood-thirsty loonies who peopled the American fascist movements and of those who worked courageously to defeat them. This history of hate and heroic resistance to hate is chilling, inspiring, and vital reading.” ―Lillian Faderman, author of NAKED IN THE PROMISED LAND and THE GAY REVOLUTION
“Steven Ross's narrative about the Americans who fought to expose and defeat the neo-fascist right in the decades after World War II is highly original, full of insight, and an utterly compelling read. Anyone who wants to understand the roots of the hatemongers who befoul our politics today should read this book.” ―Michael Kazin, author of WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN: A HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
“In his gripping new book, Steven J. Ross unflinchingly examines American Hitlerism and efforts to expose it. Recent events bring home tragically the pertinence of Ross's instructive narrative.” ―Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
“In this revelatory study, Steven Ross brings out of the shadows a series of far right agitators who have remained largely unknown to both professional scholars and the general public. He convincingly reveals that a fascist tradition has always existed in the United States, while compellingly showing how ordinary Americans have worked to counteract it. Combining original research and sober analysis, the book could not be more timely.” ―Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, author of THE FOURTH REICH: THE SPECTER OF NAZISM FROM WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT
“Set against the backdrop of postwar America, Steven Ross's meticulously researched and engaging narrative illuminates the increasingly pernicious development of White Supremacy and rightwing extremism, and those few organizations and individuals who worked to limit the impact of illiberal forces. He outlines, like few before him, the precedents that frame many of the present-day debates on whether the US should remain an inclusive democracy or revert to atavistic society that limits opportunities for those outside the majority. Despite heroic efforts by civil society to keep these forces at bay after 1945, Ross notes rightly that extremist leaders might pass, “but ideas persist forever.” Understanding the origins of today's extremisms, the approaches that proved successful in resisting them, and how this past shapes our future make The Secret War Against Hate an indispensable and important contribution to the field” ―Robert J. Williams, CEO and Finci-Viterbi Chair of the USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Steven J. Ross is a Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. He is the author of Hitler in Los Angeles, a Los Angeles Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Hollywood Left and Right, which received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Film Scholars Award, and Working-Class Hollywood, named a Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Southern California.
COUNTRY OF LORDS: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
by Kim Phillips-Fein
W.W. Norton and Company, 2026
[Publication date: July 21, 2026]
REVIEWS:
"Phillips-Fein is a graceful writer and balletic thinker; her opening paragraph tucked me into its palm and held me rapt, right through to its conclusion. Her book is slender… but her argument has vast implications for the future of the nation-state, centering the perils of inequality as global capitalism, boosted by AI, asserts its own independence from the rest of us."
― Hamilton Cain, On the Seawall
"Enlightening and shocking. The brilliant historian Kim Phillips-Fein delivers a necessary history of the scandalous but tenacious resistance to the emancipation Americans still need."
― Samuel Moyn, Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University and author of The Last Utopia
"An audacious argument that the American intellectual tradition is composed of not just egalitarian principles but also of many anti-democratic ones. With care and erudition, Country of Lords shows that the excesses of today’s far right intelligentsia are far from new."
― Alissa Quart, author of Bootstrapped
"With an artful pen and a breezy style, Kim Phillips-Fein takes the reader on a revealing tour of the ideas and people inhabiting a dark and under-recognized continuity in American history: those committed to values that are too often seen as “un-American” but whose thought and power we ignore at our peril. An eye-opening read."
― Jefferson Cowie, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Freedom's Dominion
"Both timely and necessary, this book describes the evolution and persistence of anti-Enlightenment apologias for political and material inequality that today, more than ever, threaten core American values, morals, and democracy itself."
― David Nasaw, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Wounded Generation
"Powerful, expansive, and penetrating, Country of Lords confounds our assumptions about America’s political traditions and sensibilities. Reaching back to the world of the founders and far ahead to that of the tech titans, it demands a new type of reckoning."
― Steven Hahn, author of Illiberal America
"With energy and thoughtful scholarship, Kim Phillips-Fein, one of our most gifted historians, explains why every generation has had to fight to keep the egalitarian hopes at the foundations of our republic alive."
― E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Why Americans Hate Politics
"Kim Philips-Fein has dug deep into US history and excavated a rogues gallery of men with bad, mad and even dangerous ideas. If you want to understand where we are today, this lively―and sobering―intellectual history will help."
― Dr. Anya Schiffrin, editor of Media Capture in the Digital Age
"Striking... a rousing and worrisome counter-history of a uniquely American strain of anti-democratic political thought."
― Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The Pulitzer finalist charts the long history of the American political conviction that all people are not created equal."
― Publishers Weekly, "Spring 2026 Preview: History Top Ten"
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kim Phillips-Fein is Robert Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History at Columbia University. She is the author of Fear City, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Invisible Hands. She lives in New York City.
From the Introduction:
Today, wealth and income in the United States have become more unequally distributed than they have been in a century. Our country is the most economically unequal of all developed nations.¹ And a small group of extraordinarily wealthy people exercise a vast and disproportionate power over our political and economic life.
Openly anti-egalitarian ideas are flourishing.
Why is this?
As I've looked at the archives, at the documents and the arguments that have shaped our history, what I have found is troubling and surprising: a shadow tradition of extreme inequality. Many interpretations of the right in America today focus on cultural and economic conflicts of recent origin.
This book points to a different source of strength for the right today, and its roots are in a particular constellation of ideas. The tradition outlined in this book is an openly elitist one that sees working people as essentially inferior to the rich, their financial hardships the result of their innate inequalities. This belief in the basic need for hierarchy and in the inferiority of the working class runs throughout American history (and it appears, with variations, around the world).
