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Byline Books Alt Reich.
The West faces its most dangerous threat since World War II.
Over the last 100 years, a shadowy network of American, British and European extremists inspired by Nazi eugenics has worked feverishly to shape an insidious new fascism, masquerading under the banner of ‘freedom’. Award-winning journalist Dr Nafeez Ahmed – who predicted the far-right’s rise to the mainstream - reveals why this network emerged and grew, how it works and thinks, and what it really wants: to replace Western democracies with a global techno-authoritarian order that protects elite power in an age of planetary polycrisis.
This book maps out for the first time the network’s movers and shakers from Washington to London, Brussels to Amsterdam, Budapest to Moscow. Shining new light on how anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-migrant and anti-Muslim hatred are being weaponised to deceive and divide us, Ahmed gives citizens the tools they need to disrupt the march of the Alt Reich.
Over the last 100 years, a shadowy network of American, British and European extremists inspired by Nazi eugenics has worked feverishly to shape an insidious new fascism, masquerading under the banner of ‘freedom’. Award-winning journalist Dr Nafeez Ahmed – who predicted the far-right’s rise to the mainstream - reveals why this network emerged and grew, how it works and thinks, and what it really wants: to replace Western democracies with a global techno-authoritarian order that protects elite power in an age of planetary polycrisis.
This book maps out for the first time the network’s movers and shakers from Washington to London, Brussels to Amsterdam, Budapest to Moscow. Shining new light on how anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-migrant and anti-Muslim hatred are being weaponised to deceive and divide us, Ahmed gives citizens the tools they need to disrupt the march of the Alt Reich.
432 pages, Paperback
Published January 13, 2025
17 people are currently reading
516 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 9, 2025
More scary then any fictional horror book I have read.Not to be missed. 5 stars.
December 18, 2025
This is an entertaining book produced by Byline Books about the chilling phenomenon of far right views becoming part of the political mainstream.
The same people keep cropping up throughout the pages of this investigation into why islamophobia, antisemitism, racism and xenophobia are all on the rise.
This is a story of how the far-right fringe became a trans-Atlantic network that has been infiltrating democracies in the USA, the UK, and across the European continent. This network is poised to create a new fascist global order, an extremist ideology inspired by some of the most dangerous thinking of the 1930s. A web of respectable think-tanks, policy gurus, and politicians have become mouthpieces for this global movement.
The same people keep cropping up throughout the pages of this investigation into why islamophobia, antisemitism, racism and xenophobia are all on the rise.
This is a story of how the far-right fringe became a trans-Atlantic network that has been infiltrating democracies in the USA, the UK, and across the European continent. This network is poised to create a new fascist global order, an extremist ideology inspired by some of the most dangerous thinking of the 1930s. A web of respectable think-tanks, policy gurus, and politicians have become mouthpieces for this global movement.
September 4, 2025
scary stuff, it’s all connected and somehow always has smfn to do with that fucker Thiel
May 22, 2025
What do US President Donald Trump, the Heritage Foundation, 55 Tufton Street and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon have in common? They are all major participants in what journalist Nafeez Ahmed calls the “Alt Reich”. Since 2016, anyone paying attention to global politics has witnessed shocking shifts towards hateful discourse, inflammatory policies and the indoctrination of voters. All of this is part of a sinister plot to destroy democracy from within, one described over ten chapters and many sources.
Fascism was not destroyed at the end of World War Two; instead it slinked away and rebuilt its strength in closed circles throughout the west. In the digital age, the Alt Reich has grown into a well-funded and deeply organised movement, one that espouses white supremacy, corporate domination, eugenics, media control and other twisted ideologies. From the late 1940s all the way to the present, the author paints a detailed record of how and why the far right has become so powerful. Nafeez doesn’t hold back from any of the dark details as racism, mainstreamed ideas of long-termism and connections to the KKK and other neo-nazi groups are all referenced throughout.
These history lessons are a strong component, but the real meat and bones of Alt Reich is a long list of manipulative and deceitful individuals; it’s clear that Ahmed painstakingly built this makeshift dossier over years of research. From so-called online gurus like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate all the way to politicians like Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban, all of them are closely connected by similar ideas, meetings at underhanded conferences and goals to dominate nations and cosy up to ultra-rich tech bros and dictators. As Ahmed points out, the consequences of these groups coming to power will be catastrophic for all of human civilization, especially when it comes to tackling both economic and environmental problems.
Recommended?
YES: Alt Reich is a deeply frightening and concerning read, but it’s easily the most timely and essential book I’ve read about modern politics. Nafeez has spent many years mapping out a network of dangerous individuals who aim to demolish and remake the western world in their own hideous image. The history is grim, the hidden mind-sets disturbing and the future possibilities extremely dire. This isn’t a book that you necessarily enjoy, but one that delivers a complete picture.
Fascism was not destroyed at the end of World War Two; instead it slinked away and rebuilt its strength in closed circles throughout the west. In the digital age, the Alt Reich has grown into a well-funded and deeply organised movement, one that espouses white supremacy, corporate domination, eugenics, media control and other twisted ideologies. From the late 1940s all the way to the present, the author paints a detailed record of how and why the far right has become so powerful. Nafeez doesn’t hold back from any of the dark details as racism, mainstreamed ideas of long-termism and connections to the KKK and other neo-nazi groups are all referenced throughout.
These history lessons are a strong component, but the real meat and bones of Alt Reich is a long list of manipulative and deceitful individuals; it’s clear that Ahmed painstakingly built this makeshift dossier over years of research. From so-called online gurus like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate all the way to politicians like Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban, all of them are closely connected by similar ideas, meetings at underhanded conferences and goals to dominate nations and cosy up to ultra-rich tech bros and dictators. As Ahmed points out, the consequences of these groups coming to power will be catastrophic for all of human civilization, especially when it comes to tackling both economic and environmental problems.
Recommended?
YES: Alt Reich is a deeply frightening and concerning read, but it’s easily the most timely and essential book I’ve read about modern politics. Nafeez has spent many years mapping out a network of dangerous individuals who aim to demolish and remake the western world in their own hideous image. The history is grim, the hidden mind-sets disturbing and the future possibilities extremely dire. This isn’t a book that you necessarily enjoy, but one that delivers a complete picture.
March 3, 2025
Detailed history of fascism. Last 40 pages or so brings reader up to date and is essential reading if scary
March 12, 2025
Alt Reich: The network war to destroy the West from within
I think Nafeez Ahmed puts it correctly when he talks about the largest and most consequential crisis of democracy the West has ever faced through the threat from within. As the author put it in an online interview: There is a war underway and we need to wake and fight for democracy.
I have been putting off writing a proper review because it is hard to do it justice. That being said with Project 2025 being 38% implemented in the US (https://www.project2025.observer/ ) with Trump not even 2 months, I feel I just have to give ti a go already anyway.
The book is a must-read if you want to learn about the connections between far-right across the Atlantic from the 1930s till today. I first learned about the book on January 23rd in a follow-up media discussion about Musk's fascist salute at Trump's 2025 inauguration.
While I have known quite a bit about some of the parts (the Bell Curve book place in pushing racist ideology, the connection across various national contexts around the far-right Great Replacement from Norway to New Zeeland, France) it provides an extremely detailed and well researched individual person level connection examples in the Alt Reich environment. Some of the stuff has been a genuine surprise (Dominic Cummings' closeness to eugenics ideology, for example).
A bit of a personal mind-blow for me is how the issue of the climate crisis, the economic model hitting a wall is connected to the rise of the Alt Reich as well. Not a very pleasant read, as it shows the well-funded and connected infrastructure and network of connections, but it is crucial to understand what we are facing and the book helps to understand how we got here, what is happening on the larger scale and what can and has to be done.
"The longer we turn our gaze away from the systemic root causes of our predicament, the more likely it is that the Alt Reich will succeed in consolidating - which in turn, accelerates the chances of not just social, economic and political collapse but of ecological catastrophe and wholesale civilisation breakdown." - Nafeez Ahmed
I think Nafeez Ahmed puts it correctly when he talks about the largest and most consequential crisis of democracy the West has ever faced through the threat from within. As the author put it in an online interview: There is a war underway and we need to wake and fight for democracy.
I have been putting off writing a proper review because it is hard to do it justice. That being said with Project 2025 being 38% implemented in the US (https://www.project2025.observer/ ) with Trump not even 2 months, I feel I just have to give ti a go already anyway.
The book is a must-read if you want to learn about the connections between far-right across the Atlantic from the 1930s till today. I first learned about the book on January 23rd in a follow-up media discussion about Musk's fascist salute at Trump's 2025 inauguration.
While I have known quite a bit about some of the parts (the Bell Curve book place in pushing racist ideology, the connection across various national contexts around the far-right Great Replacement from Norway to New Zeeland, France) it provides an extremely detailed and well researched individual person level connection examples in the Alt Reich environment. Some of the stuff has been a genuine surprise (Dominic Cummings' closeness to eugenics ideology, for example).
A bit of a personal mind-blow for me is how the issue of the climate crisis, the economic model hitting a wall is connected to the rise of the Alt Reich as well. Not a very pleasant read, as it shows the well-funded and connected infrastructure and network of connections, but it is crucial to understand what we are facing and the book helps to understand how we got here, what is happening on the larger scale and what can and has to be done.
"The longer we turn our gaze away from the systemic root causes of our predicament, the more likely it is that the Alt Reich will succeed in consolidating - which in turn, accelerates the chances of not just social, economic and political collapse but of ecological catastrophe and wholesale civilisation breakdown." - Nafeez Ahmed
July 22, 2025
An interesting book, but I felt that it got a little too lost in the weeds of names and organisation. Some times it felt like an avalanche of racists, without anything to tie it together.
January 7, 2026
why is it always peter thiel?
January 26, 2026
A must read. Fantastically researched, great references and very scary as to what may be coming.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews