Imagining Community in White Nationalism's Mediated Network

This book illustrates how white nationalism emerged and maintained itself as a global movement in the years after the Second World War, contending that its international scope was made possible by a network of individuals and groups who depended on media to communicate with each other. By establishing and maintaining mediated networks, Feshami posits, members of the movement were able to more persuasively communicate not only their ideas and worldview but also—perhaps more compellingly—the personal emotions, narratives, and experiences which have encouraged them to construct and understand their identities as part of a national community fighting for its survival. To that end, he analyzes a variety of archival white nationalist media artifacts as case studies to demonstrate how the movement has historically utilized media to construct and foster an identity grounded in ideas of racial unity, geographical belonging, and perceived existential threats. As white nationalists attempt to draw larger audiences by shifting cultural attitudes toward their vision of a globally united white nation, Feshami positions this network as a mediated space comprising a social architecture in which participants are encouraged to form core understandings of the self, one’s relationship to others, and one’s place in the larger world. In doing so, they seek to grow a movement that threatens the future of democratic and pluralist societies.