Reactionary democracy: how racism and the populist far right became mainstream

‘Racism evolves and adapts’ (p. 203). This is one of the main claims made by Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter in this timely book about the far right. Since the Brexit referendum in the UK and the election of President Donald Trump in the US, many scholars and journalists have turned their attention to the far right—and in so doing have contributed to its mainstreaming. Despite the growing body of literature on the topic, little attention has been paid to how liberalism has strengthened systemic racism, facilitating the recent far-right upheaval. This research gap is explored by Mondon and Winter through new conceptualizations and frameworks. Besides challenging the view that liberalism is an opposing force to racism (and hence the far right), the book presents at least three other theoretical contributions to existing debates on the far right. In the first two chapters, the authors present their framework for understanding...