Failed Führers (Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right)

The book provides a comprehensive history of the ideas and ideologues associated with the racial fascist tradition in Britain. It charts the evolution of white racial nationalism in Britain as a political manifestation, from its origins amongst a range of pro-Nazi groupuscules in the 1930s, to the margins of the mainstream reached by the British National Party (BNP) at the peak of its powers in 2009. It charts this history through the prism of its principal leaders and the movements with which they were associated, in order to study the evolution of its racial ideology from overtly biological conceptions of ‘white supremacy’ through ‘racial nationalism’ and latterly to ‘cultural’ arguments regarding ‘ethno-nationalism’. Drawing on extensive archival research and often obscure primary texts and propaganda as well as the official records of the British government and its security services, this is the definitive account of fascism in Britain and will be essential reading for all students and scholars of race relations, extremism and fascism.