Chain of Ideas: Great Replacement Theory and the Origins of Our Authoritarian Age

A revelatory account of the racist conspiracy theory that now pervades global politics – from the prize-winning author of the million-copy bestseller How To Be an Antiracist

‘An essential framework for parsing current events . . . meticulously researched . . . worthwhile and accessible . . . also offers a modicum of hope’ Arwa Mahdawi, Guardian

Throughout the world, authoritarian movements are radically reshaping our politics and our lives. At the heart of them all lies ‘great replacement theory’, which insists that peoples of colour, migrants and minorities are being deliberately empowered to displace white majorities.

In Chain of Ideas, Ibram X. Kendi shows how this conspiracy theory has mutated from the extremist fringe into a global ideology, embraced by leaders as varied as Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, Nigel Farage, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. He traces its historic roots in slavery, segregation, colonialism and Nazism, and shows how these age-old prejudices have been dressed in new language for a digital age.

But this is not a book about extremists on the margins. From Anders Breivik’s massacre to the chants of the Charlottesville marchers, from Brexit slogans to the Christchurch shooting, Kendi shows how these ideas have crossed borders, inspired terror and are now re-shaping parties of government. Chain of Ideas is a penetrating history of how reactionary ideas have been repackaged as common sense, and how they shape the globe today.

PRAISE FOR IBRAM X. KENDI:

‘The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind’ The New York Times on How To Be an Antiracist

‘One of the pre-eminent intellectuals on race’ Guardian

‘A kind, dignified, preternaturally wise teacher’ GQ

‘One of today’s most visible and sought-after public intellectuals’ Wall Street Journal

‘One of the US’s most respected scholars of race and history’ Afua Hirsch

‘[Kendi] is not a historian fearful of upsetting orthodoxies or questioning fixed reputations’ David Olusoga