Episode · Behind the Bastards · 2025-02-08
Books mentioned on It Could Happen Here Weekly 168
All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file.
James Stout discussed The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott. Spencer Sunshine discussed Siege by James Mason, and criticized The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds by Robert S. Griffin. Molly Conger discussed The Klansman’s Son by R. Derek Black and Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism by Spencer Sunshine. Also mentioned: Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
The Art of Not Being Governed
The Art of Not Being Governed by James C.
Discussed“We like the wild people like but yeah this this narrative I mean James C. Scott talks about this right in the art of not being governed. This idea that these mountains were never really places that were amenable to state control”
Where to get it
-
Siege
Siege by James Mason is a foundational and disturbing text that outlines the ideology and tactical approaches of accelerationist white supremacist groups like Atomwaffen.
Discussed“It was a book originally published in 1993, but that is an edited version of newsletters published in the 80s by a fellow named James Mason who was a lifelong neo-Nazi. He joined the American Nazi party at age 14 in 1966.”
Where to get it
-
The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds
Critiqued“And so Robert S. Griffin he wrote um uh what is it? The fame of a dead man's deeds. Is that what it's called? He went into it, you know, saying like, I'm going to write this neutral appraisal of this figure of the movement about William Luther Pierce.”
Where to get it
-
The Klansman’s Son
Discussed“Yeah. I mean, that's a window you don't often get, although I guess now we do also have um The Clansman's Son by um Don Black's daughter. Black's daughter or son? She has transitioned. Oh, I did not know that.”
Where to get it
-
Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism
Discussed“So Siege was a newsletter that became a book. People read the book and then the people who read that book turned it back into a zine, right? So it's it's sort of oh to some level, right? It's moving through its phases”
Where to get it
-
Raw Dog
Raw Dog is a humorous and deeply researched cultural history of the hot dog in America written by author and comedian Jamie Loftus.
Recommended“Read Jamie Loftess' book, Raw Dog. I'm a doctor. I can't do that by law.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (6) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“You know, Rald Doll, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy?”
“You know, Rald Doll, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy?”
“I am Sunshine, the author of Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's Siege. Um, it's available now in paperback. I have my paperback copy from Rutled Press.”
“One, as I said, was that there was this whole story of American neo-Nazism of when the American Nazi party splinters then called the National Socialist White People's Party in the 1970s and all these groups come out of it. Many of which we know parts of like William Pierce who wrote the Turner Diaries”
“So, there is actually a book describing what you've said, putting the pieces together, and it's called neo-Nazi terrorism and countercultural fascism. Exactly. It's the I think which you can buy today. I mean, like I said, it's it's the only book that I know of that fits these pieces together.”
“Yeah, I think that's the right analogy, right? that it is a a foundational text, but they're not all sitting down and digesting or even understanding it. Yeah. I mean, how many communists have read Dos Cavatal, you know, even just volume one, which I have.”