Exposing the Right and Fighting for Democracy: Celebrating Chip Berlet as Journalist and Scholar(Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right)

This book celebrates the life and work of scholar-activist Chip Berlet. His contributions over four decades have had broad-ranging impacts on activists, independent intellectuals, and academics, from think tanks and social movements to generations of scholars. Berlet’s work over the decades has covered a wide range of topics, from the Christian Right, armed militias, social movement theory, and white supremacy to conspiracism, civil liberties, and government surveillance. This book features contributions reflecting on many of these topics by leading scholars and activists who have been inspired by his work and example. This book will be of great interest to scholars, students, and activists within anti-racist, anti-fascist, and progressive social movements.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: The Early Years 1. Chip in the 1960s 2. My Friend Chip 3. From Way Back When to Now 4. Chip: The "Winni" Years 5. Our Best Friend 6. Awe-Inspiring Moments and Radical Alterations: A Conversation with Chip Berlet Part II: Analysis 7. Ruminations on an Intellectual History of Chip Berlet and the "Right Wing Populism" Formulation 8. Transnational Right-Wing Populism: Chip Berlet’s Enduring Insights 9. Chip Berlet’s Brave Look at the Far Right’s History and Ourselves 10. Reading Chip Berlet in the Rose City 11. Chip Berlet and the Fidelity of the Clerks: A Historical Excursus 12. Understanding and Resisting Left-Right Convergence in the Internet Age 13. Social Movement Theory and Right-Wing Conspiracism: Hints from Chip Berlet’s Work 14. What I Learned from Interacting with and Reading Chip Berlet: An Appreciation and Thank You 15. Why I’m a Chipite: Lessons from Chip Berlet 16. Agent and Archive: Chip Berlet and the Historicity of Right-Watchers 17. Donald Trump and the Myth of the Deep State Part III: Practice 18. Our Chip 19. In Praise of Chip Berlet: Intrepid and Trustworthy Trail Guide 20. Chip Berlet’s Magic and Militias 21. Homage to Chip 22. A Conversation on Chip’s Praxis 23. Righteous Mensch 24. The Berlet School of Political Thought 25. Chip: You Rock My World! 26. Fighting the Good Fight: No Chip on his Shoulder 27. Genuine Chip 28. He Opened the Library to Me 29. Chip Berlet, Co-author 30. Chip’s Intellectual Influence in Exploring African Anti-gay Politics 31. The Still, Strategic, Organizer Mind of Chip Berlet 32. An Important Mentor 33. Studies on the Right with Chip Berlet 34. Desperately Seeking Chip Part IV: Legacy 35. Reflections on Reading Chip Berlet 36. Chip Berlet and Defending Dissent 37. Always There in My Corner 38. A Bridge Called Chip Berlet 39. The Generosity of Chip Berlet 40. A Tribute to Chip 41. For Chip 42. A Hero 43. Chip Berlet was My Foundation 44. The Significance of Chip Berlet 45. A Bright Light of Scholarship and Reporting in a Darkening Time 46. Standing on the Shoulders of Giants 47. Chip Berlet Made Me a Better Researcher and Thinker

About the Author :
Pam Chamberlain worked, for fifteen years, alongside Chip Berlet at Political Research Associates, USA, as a researcher and analyst, helping to produce the Defending Democracy series of activist toolkits. Her writing focused on issues of sex, sexuality, gender, and how the Right sought to limit progress and gain power through its organizing in these areas. She has been a high school English teacher, a sex educator, an anti-nuclear activist, and an advisor to LGBTQ youth organizations. Matthew N. Lyons writes regularly for Three Way Fight, a radical anti-fascist blog. He has written several books, including one co-authored with Chip Berlet, and for various journals, magazines, and websites. His work focuses on the interplay between right-wing movements and systems of oppression, and responses to these movements by leftists, liberals, and the state. He is co-trustee of the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust, which stewards the literary legacy of the late playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry. Abby Scher is a New York-based sociologist whose writing on the Right, economic justice, and women’s and immigrant issues appears in national outlets. She served as Editorial Director and Interim Research Director of Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank that tracks the U.S. Right, where she was a colleague of Chip Berlet. She is a partner in Research|Action, a worker-owned cooperative that allies with community and labor organizations to promote social change. The Ford Foundation recognized her organizing work bridging racial and ethnic divides with its Leadership for a Changing World Award. Spencer Sunshine has a Ph.D. in Sociology and has spent over fifteen years researching, writing about, and counter-organizing against the Far Right. From 2013 to 2019, he was an Associate Fellow at the think tank Political Research Associates, USA. He has written numerous articles chronicling the Far Right in the Trump era, including one co-authored with Chip Berlet. He is currently working on a history of neo-Nazi James Mason’s influential pro-terrorist book, Siege.