Mattias Gardell – Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism (Duke University Press, 2003)
Very readable for an academic book. Gardell is Swedish and specialises in the extreme end of comparative religion, having previously published a book on the Nation of Islam. The common theme being racial mysticism, of course – in this case the mysticism of whiteness, right down to the bizarre claims that Jesus was an aryan from the “Christian Identity” movement.
Whilst focussing primarily on racist Odinism/Asatru the book also includes a good overview of the development of the American far right and the “occult fascism” which emerged out of a particular strand of industrial music in the 1990s. There is a more critical review of the book over at the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
Noel Ignatiev – How The Irish Became White (Routledge, 2008)
As a former editor of the journal Race Traitor (“Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity”) I imagine Mr Ignatiev would be quite unpopular with a lot of people featured in Gardell’s book. This is quite US-centric, an examination of how Irish immigrants (and wider US society) dealt with the issue of slavery, and how this was a crucial element in them being accepted as part of the American white working class. The political machinations were a bit much for me, but overall I’d still recommend this I think.
John Hutnyk – Critique of Exotica (Pluto Press, 2000)
Nice contrast between the Asian exotica of Kula Shaker and the overtly politicised approach of Asian Dub Foundation and Fundamental.
Ray Hurford & Joakim Kalcidis – Small Axe Reggae Album Guide: Deejays (Small Axe, 2009)
Reviewed this for Woofah issue 4, but suffice to say it does what it says on the tin. Check it.
Linkage:
Les Back – Coughing Up Fire: Soundsystems in South East London (New Formations Number 5 Summer 1988)
Tom Lea – Essential Ruff Sqwad (FACT magazine 2009) – great overview of these Grime dons, complete with loadsa youtube links.
Droid – 20 Best Ragga Tunes (FACT magazine 2009) – the usual top notch quality and detail one expects from the man who single handedly saved Woofah from oblivion. Again, lots of audio to check alongside the great commentary.
Mark Hayes and Paul Aylward – Anti Fascist Action: Radical Resistance or rent-a-mob? (Soundings Issue 14 Spring 2000)
Er…I think Noel Ignatiev would be unpopular with a lot of people, cos he’s a complete bellend.
That book is kind of interesting as it is one of the only works on the topic, but I found it to be both historically inaccurate and narrowly focused – I also think the main thrust of his argument is far to simplistic. Shannon’s “The American Irish” is the one.
Funnily enough I’m just reading Les Back’s book from around the same time – New Ethncities and Urban Culture (1996), drawing on the same material about SE London sound systems. Very good it is too.