Blood and Politics: the history of the white nationalist movement from the margins to the mainstream

By: Zeskind, Leonard

Published by PICADOR, 2026-10-13

Originally published to great acclaim in 2009, Blood and Politics is an unprecedented, sweeping history of white nationalism’s rise in America from a MacArthur Award–winning expert in the field. Over decades of archival and in-person research, Leonard Zeskind explored the startling underworld of white supremacist organizations in the United States, from think tanks and publications to armed militia groups. Tracing a vast web of Holocaust deniers, Christian Identity churches, neo-Nazi skinheads, and high-profile figures like David Duke, Zeskind finds that these factions―once thought to be fringe extremists―have both deep roots and far-reaching ambitions. Thorough, careful, and troublingly prescient, Blood and Politics is an essential study of American racism and a rallying cry for the ongoing fight against hate.