Parution : Jean-Yves Camus et Nicolas Lebourg, Far-Right Politics in Europe, Belknap, Harvard university press, Harvard, 2017, 320 p. (Les Droites extrêmes en Europe, translated by Jane Marie Todd)

First reviews :

“Indispensable.”—Robert Zaretsky, Foreign Policy

“The English-language translation of Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg’s Far-Right Politics in Europe could not have come at a more appropriate time with the rise of Golden Dawn in Greece, the National Front in France, and the transnational ‘Identitaire’ movement, amongst others. Aptly, the authors navigate the long history of the European far-right, starting with the Ancien Régime and moving to today… Far-Right Politics gives important insight to scholars interested in emerging (and converging) Alt-Right movements. The book weaves in and out of the rise, fall, and reemergence of far-right movements across European countries, reminding scholars that, for some, the final chapter of far-right politics has yet to be written.”—Louie Dean Valencia-García, EuropeNow

“Camus and Lebourg present an in-depth, thoroughly researched look at a faction of European political movements.”—Mattie Cook, Library Journal

“A fascinating and comprehensive study that follows more than a century of the history of far-right movements in Western Europe as they transform or die and argues that there are no prepackaged essences to them. I cannot imagine a better way to understand the current field than to read this book.”—John R. Bowen, author of Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space

Presentation : 

In Europe today, staunchly nationalist parties such as France’s National Front and the Austrian Freedom Party are identified as far-right movements, though supporters seldom embrace that label. More often, “far right” is pejorative, used by liberals to tar these groups with the taint of Fascism, Nazism, and other discredited ideologies. Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg’s critical look at the far right throughout Europe—from the United Kingdom to France, Germany, Poland, Italy, and elsewhere—reveals a prehistory and politics more complex than the stereotypes suggest and warns of the challenges these movements pose to the EU’s liberal-democratic order.

The European far right represents a confluence of many ideologies: nationalism, socialism, anti-Semitism, authoritarianism. In the first half of the twentieth century, the radical far right achieved its apotheosis in the regimes of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. But these movements have evolved significantly since 1945, as Far-Right Politics in Europe makes clear. The 1980s marked a turning point in political fortunes, as national-populist parties began winning seats in European parliaments. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the United States, a new wave has unfurled, one that is explicitly anti-immigrant and Islamophobic in outlook.

Though Europe’s far-right parties differ in important respects, they are motivated by a common sense of mission: to save their homelands from what they view as the corrosive effects of multiculturalism and globalization by creating a closed-off, ethnically homogeneous society. Members of these movements are increasingly determined to gain power through legitimate electoral means. In democracies across Europe, they are succeeding.

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