Religion and Politics

White Nationalism’s Deep American Roots

The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer writes about Madison Grant, a prominent lawyer and early proponent of eugenics whose 1916 book called The Passing of the Great Race influenced both the American public and Nazi Germany. Serwer writes, “What is judged extremist today was once the consensus of a powerful cadre of the American elite, well-connected men who eagerly seized on a false doctrine of ‘race suicide’ during the immigration scare of the early 20th century.” Although U.S. forces eventually helped defeat Nazi Germany out of a commitment to democracy, Sewer writes, the excision of America’s influence on Nazi Germany has paved the way for some of Grant’s ideas to be resurrected. “Grant’s philosophical framework has found new life among extremists at home and abroad, and echoes of his rhetoric can be heard from the Republican base and the conservative media figures the base trusts, as well as—once again—in the highest reaches of government.”

Read at The Atlantic

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