This is Fascism: A Wake-Up Call To Resist
by Rosan Smits
The Experiment 2026
[Publication date: September 15, 2026]
by Rosan Smits
The Experiment 2026
[Publication date: September 15, 2026]
An international bestseller, this “excellent” (Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny), urgent book outlines how fascism has returned to the mainstream―and how we can stop it
Fascism is back. This time no swastikas or concentration camps, but MAGA hats and masked immigration officers. In his second term, Donald Trump is putting together a fascist regime. Not only Trump’s political adversaries say so; his own former advisers do, too. Internationally renowned scholars―experts in the field of fascism―say the evidence is overwhelming: Fascism is on the rise, not just in the US but around the world.
Political scientist Rosan Smits topples the strongly held conviction in the West that our established democracies are immune. They are not. Fascism wasn’t just born in the West; it’s where new variants are being incubated. And these modern variants pose a threat not only to our national democracies but the international rules-based order built on law and human rights. The illusion that “it can’t happen here” makes us vulnerable and apathetic, precisely at a moment when action is still possible.
Standing up against emerging fascism requires collective action. Nothing is inevitable in politics, and fascism doesn’t stand a chance if enough people understand that an attack on one person’s freedom is an attack on everyone’s freedom.
If, in short, enough people understand: This is fascism.
Fascism is back. This time no swastikas or concentration camps, but MAGA hats and masked immigration officers. In his second term, Donald Trump is putting together a fascist regime. Not only Trump’s political adversaries say so; his own former advisers do, too. Internationally renowned scholars―experts in the field of fascism―say the evidence is overwhelming: Fascism is on the rise, not just in the US but around the world.
Political scientist Rosan Smits topples the strongly held conviction in the West that our established democracies are immune. They are not. Fascism wasn’t just born in the West; it’s where new variants are being incubated. And these modern variants pose a threat not only to our national democracies but the international rules-based order built on law and human rights. The illusion that “it can’t happen here” makes us vulnerable and apathetic, precisely at a moment when action is still possible.
Standing up against emerging fascism requires collective action. Nothing is inevitable in politics, and fascism doesn’t stand a chance if enough people understand that an attack on one person’s freedom is an attack on everyone’s freedom.
If, in short, enough people understand: This is fascism.
REVIEWS:
"An unignorable warning against political apathy."
― Publishers Weekly
"This book is a distress signal. Rosan Smits makes it crystal clear how fascism is being normalized at alarming speed. Think it can't happen in Western democracies? Then read this book―because it already is."
― Rutger Bregman, author of Moral Ambition and Humankind
"A masterful and chilling dissection of the modern ideology of hate."
― Paul Mason, author of How to Stop Fascism
"After a decade of debate about the nature of the global far right, Rosan Smits amasses the evidence and the competing analyses to produce a definitive judgment: This Is Fascism. A necessary read to understand the challenge we face now from the xenophobic ideology destroying democracies across the west. We cannot act unless we know what we face and with this work Rosan Smits has settled that question."
― Jason Stanley, author of the New York Times–bestselling How Fascism Works
"An excellent read."
― Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny
"Few journalists address the major issues of our time. Rosan Smits does. She explains clearly and convincingly what fascism is and why we need to use the word now. A necessary book."
― Simon Kuper, Financial Times journalist
"This book is a mirror. And we would be foolish not to look."
― Carice van Houten, award-winning Game of Thrones actress
"Brilliant."
― Alastair Campbell, host of The Rest Is Politics
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rosan Smits is a political scientist and has conducted research on radicalization and violence in war zones for many years. She led the Conflict Research Unit at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. Since 2017, she has been deputy editor in chief of De Correspondent.
Huey P. Newton: I Am We
by Delio Vasquez
Polity, 2026
[Publication date: September 28, 2026]
Huey P. Newton was called many things in his time: revolutionary, genius, criminal, even the most surveilled human being in world history. Yet, little of the truth about him is known today due to persistent distortions of his legacy as co-founder of the Black Panther Party.
In this much-needed intellectual history, Delio Vásquez establishes Newton as a true philosopher. Newton developed innovative theories for how the most oppressed could spearhead revolutionary change in a rapidly developing technological society. Inspired by his ideas, the Panthers forged alliances with Black student unions and street gangs, Hollywood elites and poor whites, the gay liberation movement and Third World nations.
Newton left behind dozens of unpublished manuscripts analyzing politics, feminist thought, education, philosophy, evolutionary biology, and theology – texts presented here for the first time. Vásquez also puts into proper perspective Newton's late descent into addiction and madness – a direct effect of US government techniques of cognitive war that targeted his body and mind in ways that remain all too relevant today.
REVIEWS:
"This brilliant book is the long-awaited definitive treatment of the intellectual genius of Huey P. Newton! It shatters the narrow image of this great Black revolutionary figure and discloses a genuine truth-seeker and defender of oppressed people around the world."
In this much-needed intellectual history, Delio Vásquez establishes Newton as a true philosopher. Newton developed innovative theories for how the most oppressed could spearhead revolutionary change in a rapidly developing technological society. Inspired by his ideas, the Panthers forged alliances with Black student unions and street gangs, Hollywood elites and poor whites, the gay liberation movement and Third World nations.
Newton left behind dozens of unpublished manuscripts analyzing politics, feminist thought, education, philosophy, evolutionary biology, and theology – texts presented here for the first time. Vásquez also puts into proper perspective Newton's late descent into addiction and madness – a direct effect of US government techniques of cognitive war that targeted his body and mind in ways that remain all too relevant today.
REVIEWS:
"This brilliant book is the long-awaited definitive treatment of the intellectual genius of Huey P. Newton! It shatters the narrow image of this great Black revolutionary figure and discloses a genuine truth-seeker and defender of oppressed people around the world."
–Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary
"This book educates us about love, the lumpen, and the liabilities of freedom fighters. Huey P. Newton shouldered his love for the people. Despite the fractures of betrayals and addictions, he studied and advocated for liberation, and left a legacy for study and to seek principled paths for liberation."
–Joy James, Williams College
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Delio Vásquez is Assistant Professor at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
I Hear Freedom: The Great Migration, Free Jazz, and Black Power
by Cisco Bradley
Columbia University Press, 2026
[Publication date: March 17, 2026]
In the 1960s, a musical revolution took place in the industrial landscapes of Cleveland and Detroit. Disenchanted with the strictures of bebop, musicians forged a new style―free jazz―that took inspiration from a vast range of sources, including figures such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and John Coltrane; African and Middle Eastern music; avant-garde modernism; and the politics and aesthetics of Black Power. How did this radical movement come about, and what explains its creativity and vitality?
Based on interviews with dozens of musicians, I Hear Freedom tells the story of free jazz and its connection to the broader Black experience. Cisco Bradley demonstrates that although this part of the free jazz movement arose in the Midwest, it is deeply rooted in the musical traditions and aesthetics that the Great Migration brought from the South. As postwar urban renewal projects fractured Black communities, musicians drew on this heritage to create new forms of expression. Figures such as Albert Ayler, Donald Ayler, Charles Tyler, Frank Wright, Bobby Few, Charles Moore, and Faruq Z. Bey developed distinct artistic visions, often influenced by their involvement in Black liberation movements. I Hear Freedom chronicles the Cleveland and Detroit free jazz scenes, and it follows musicians to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and beyond. A revelatory oral history, this book shows that free jazz is a uniquely Black style shaped by mobility, community, and the struggle for freedom.
REVIEWS:
"Through meticulous oral histories, archival research, and theoretical insight, Bradley expands the scope and tenor of jazz historiography by revealing how Black familial lineages carried musical values of mobility, collectivity, and experimentation into the heart of northern urban modernity and made jazz a blueprint for the Black radical tradition and its dreams of liberation." -- Benjamin Barson, author of Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons
"In I Hear Freedom, Cisco Bradley guides readers through an alternative, ethnographic model of jazz―and thus American music―history. Other jazz scholars posit linear genealogies, with musicians/composers evolving out of past styles and artists; Bradley instead situates Black improvising musicians/composers within their familial, community, and professional networks. With extensive and unprecedented archival research, Bradley reveals how migratory movement drove free jazz’s experimentalist praxis and how encounters made along the journey culminated in art." -- Kwami Coleman, author of Change: The New Thing and Modern Jazz
"[A] comprehensive, vivid treatment of social as well as musical factors in the development of free jazz." ― The Wire
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cisco Bradley is professor of history at the Pratt Institute. His books include The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront (2023) and Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker (2021). He is also the director of the documentary Take Me to Fendika (2024).
A Burning House: My Politics
by Harry Belafonte
(Based on conversations with Kevin Baker)
The New Press, 2026
[Publication date: October 13, 2026]
Based on interviews with dozens of musicians, I Hear Freedom tells the story of free jazz and its connection to the broader Black experience. Cisco Bradley demonstrates that although this part of the free jazz movement arose in the Midwest, it is deeply rooted in the musical traditions and aesthetics that the Great Migration brought from the South. As postwar urban renewal projects fractured Black communities, musicians drew on this heritage to create new forms of expression. Figures such as Albert Ayler, Donald Ayler, Charles Tyler, Frank Wright, Bobby Few, Charles Moore, and Faruq Z. Bey developed distinct artistic visions, often influenced by their involvement in Black liberation movements. I Hear Freedom chronicles the Cleveland and Detroit free jazz scenes, and it follows musicians to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and beyond. A revelatory oral history, this book shows that free jazz is a uniquely Black style shaped by mobility, community, and the struggle for freedom.
REVIEWS:
"Through meticulous oral histories, archival research, and theoretical insight, Bradley expands the scope and tenor of jazz historiography by revealing how Black familial lineages carried musical values of mobility, collectivity, and experimentation into the heart of northern urban modernity and made jazz a blueprint for the Black radical tradition and its dreams of liberation." -- Benjamin Barson, author of Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons
"In I Hear Freedom, Cisco Bradley guides readers through an alternative, ethnographic model of jazz―and thus American music―history. Other jazz scholars posit linear genealogies, with musicians/composers evolving out of past styles and artists; Bradley instead situates Black improvising musicians/composers within their familial, community, and professional networks. With extensive and unprecedented archival research, Bradley reveals how migratory movement drove free jazz’s experimentalist praxis and how encounters made along the journey culminated in art." -- Kwami Coleman, author of Change: The New Thing and Modern Jazz
"[A] comprehensive, vivid treatment of social as well as musical factors in the development of free jazz." ― The Wire
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cisco Bradley is professor of history at the Pratt Institute. His books include The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront (2023) and Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker (2021). He is also the director of the documentary Take Me to Fendika (2024).
A Burning House: My Politics
by Harry Belafonte
(Based on conversations with Kevin Baker)
The New Press, 2026
[Publication date: October 13, 2026]
The late, legendary performer and activist’s candid reflections on American race relations and social movements, based on previously unpublished conversations with the award-winning historian
“The only thing that has disrupted—and at the same time anointed—my path to popular successes was my politics, because I’ve said and done things that most artists would never have survived.” —Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte was more than a bestselling folk singer and Hollywood’s first Black matinée idol; he was also the secret weapon of human rights movements for seventy years—a close confidante of Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt; a trusted whisperer to JFK; and a political advisor to African heads of state.
Belafonte simultaneously advised Robert F. Kennedy on how to win the Black vote, openly supported Communist leaders including Fidel Castro, and skillfully avoided being blacklisted by J. Edgar Hoover. He was also a masterful fundraiser, almost singlehandedly bankrolling the civil rights movement from his own earnings as well as donations solicited from Hollywood friends and Vegas mobsters. It was Belafonte’s idea to organize superstar artists to record the hit song “We Are the World” in 1984 to benefit famine victims in Africa.
In this candid, revelatory book, drawn from a series of conversations with historian Kevin Baker shortly before Belafonte’s death in 2023, the legendary singer of “Day-O” shares his philosophy on racial politics, African colonialism, the emergence of Israel, the shortcomings of Barack Obama, and the rise of Donald Trump. A Burning House offers a primer on celebrity activism at its best—as well as a cautionary tale about the rise of American authoritarianism.
Review
Praise for A Burning House:
“Candid reflections from the epitome of the artist-activist.”—John Legend
"Insisting that ‘the world’s on fire. Something yet has to be done,’ Belafonte urges all Americans to rediscover their radicalism. It’s an invaluable rallying cry."—Publishers Weekly
“One of the most gifted conversationalists of our times, Belafonte’s literary panache and vibrant rhetoric are evident on every page.”—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Entertaining Race
“A bracing reminder that Belafonte was never only an entertainer—he was always a deeply committed activist working all his life to repair the world. His searing critiques of greed and the passive acceptance of the status quo are unforgettable.”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
“Anytime we talked, Belafonte spoke a truth that pierced your soul. He has left us with a beautiful gift in A Burning House.”—Roland S. Martin, host of #RolandMartinUnfiltered
“Harry Belafonte created the blueprint for being an artist and an activist long before a path was defined. . . . His legacy reminds us to stand in the light and fight.”—Erica Alexander, actress, writer-producer, activist, co-founder, Color Farm Media
“These final reflections reveal the conviction, courage, and political clarity that made Harry Belafonte one of the most consequential movement figures of our time.”—Rashad Robinson, social justice leader and author of From Presence to Power
“Belafonte bravely used his gifts from God to uplift our culture, the entertainment industry, art, and the world.”—Omari Hardwick, actor
“Harry Belafonte was one of the great organic intellectual and great talkers of our age. There’s no better way to understand all that he still has to teach us than to read his own words.”—Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, author of Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made
“Drawn from a series of conversations with journalist Baker, Belafonte’s reflections on political activism begin with his heroes. Recounting his time with Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Jackie Robinson, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., Belafonte constructs a genealogy for his own style of celebrity activism. . . . Many readers are likely to benefit from Belafonte’s experiences and insights.”—Kirkus Reviews
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Harry Belafonte (1927–2023) was a chart-topping American singer, actor, and civil rights activist best known for popularizing calypso music internationally.
Kevin Baker is an American political commentator and journalist, author of the bestselling Paradise Alley (2002), winner of the 2003 American Book Award and James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction. He lives in New York City.
“The only thing that has disrupted—and at the same time anointed—my path to popular successes was my politics, because I’ve said and done things that most artists would never have survived.” —Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte was more than a bestselling folk singer and Hollywood’s first Black matinée idol; he was also the secret weapon of human rights movements for seventy years—a close confidante of Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt; a trusted whisperer to JFK; and a political advisor to African heads of state.
Belafonte simultaneously advised Robert F. Kennedy on how to win the Black vote, openly supported Communist leaders including Fidel Castro, and skillfully avoided being blacklisted by J. Edgar Hoover. He was also a masterful fundraiser, almost singlehandedly bankrolling the civil rights movement from his own earnings as well as donations solicited from Hollywood friends and Vegas mobsters. It was Belafonte’s idea to organize superstar artists to record the hit song “We Are the World” in 1984 to benefit famine victims in Africa.
In this candid, revelatory book, drawn from a series of conversations with historian Kevin Baker shortly before Belafonte’s death in 2023, the legendary singer of “Day-O” shares his philosophy on racial politics, African colonialism, the emergence of Israel, the shortcomings of Barack Obama, and the rise of Donald Trump. A Burning House offers a primer on celebrity activism at its best—as well as a cautionary tale about the rise of American authoritarianism.
Review
Praise for A Burning House:
“Candid reflections from the epitome of the artist-activist.”—John Legend
"Insisting that ‘the world’s on fire. Something yet has to be done,’ Belafonte urges all Americans to rediscover their radicalism. It’s an invaluable rallying cry."—Publishers Weekly
“One of the most gifted conversationalists of our times, Belafonte’s literary panache and vibrant rhetoric are evident on every page.”—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Entertaining Race
“A bracing reminder that Belafonte was never only an entertainer—he was always a deeply committed activist working all his life to repair the world. His searing critiques of greed and the passive acceptance of the status quo are unforgettable.”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
“Anytime we talked, Belafonte spoke a truth that pierced your soul. He has left us with a beautiful gift in A Burning House.”—Roland S. Martin, host of #RolandMartinUnfiltered
“Harry Belafonte created the blueprint for being an artist and an activist long before a path was defined. . . . His legacy reminds us to stand in the light and fight.”—Erica Alexander, actress, writer-producer, activist, co-founder, Color Farm Media
“These final reflections reveal the conviction, courage, and political clarity that made Harry Belafonte one of the most consequential movement figures of our time.”—Rashad Robinson, social justice leader and author of From Presence to Power
“Belafonte bravely used his gifts from God to uplift our culture, the entertainment industry, art, and the world.”—Omari Hardwick, actor
“Harry Belafonte was one of the great organic intellectual and great talkers of our age. There’s no better way to understand all that he still has to teach us than to read his own words.”—Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, author of Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made
“Drawn from a series of conversations with journalist Baker, Belafonte’s reflections on political activism begin with his heroes. Recounting his time with Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Jackie Robinson, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., Belafonte constructs a genealogy for his own style of celebrity activism. . . . Many readers are likely to benefit from Belafonte’s experiences and insights.”—Kirkus Reviews
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Harry Belafonte (1927–2023) was a chart-topping American singer, actor, and civil rights activist best known for popularizing calypso music internationally.
Kevin Baker is an American political commentator and journalist, author of the bestselling Paradise Alley (2002), winner of the 2003 American Book Award and James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction. He lives in New York City.