Coming Friday: The Turner Legacy
Update: The paper is out!
One of the primary inspirations for this site is The Turner Diaries, the infamous racist dystopian novel by neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce, which has inspired more than 200 murders since its publication in 1978, including the single deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, the Oklahoma City bombing.
The first entry in The Turner Diaries is dated September 16, 1991. On Friday, 25 years after the book's fictional white nationalist revolution begins, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism -- The Hague will publish my newest paper, The Turner Legacy.
The Turner Legacy examines the history behind the book, which is not a singular artifact, but part of a robust history of racist dystopian fiction dating back to before the Civil War. The paper then dissects the novel's propaganda messaging and compares it to its predecessors in an effort to explain Turner's enduring impact, including how it has transformed white nationalism's ideologies, why it has inspired so much violence, and why it continues to attract new audiences today, nearly 40 years after its publication.
I'm very much looking forward to putting this piece of research forward, and I will publish a couple short posts on relevant topics between now and then.
Update:
In advance of the paper's release, some blog posts on related material:
The John Franklin Letters, the book that inspired The Turner Diaries.
Jack London's racist dystopian short story The Unparalleled Invasion.
Racism and Radiophones: Two weird entries in the racist dystopia subgenre