A new book examines the rise of the ‘alt-right’ in the US and its impact on the country’s politics

In the weeks after Trump’s election, an up-and-comer on the far right named Richard Spencer appeared on NBC, NPR, and CNN. Profiles of him appeared in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. More were in the works. Showtime was putting out feelers for a documentary. Then, just before Thanksgiving, Spencer gave a speech at the annual conference of his think tank, the National Policy Institute. NPI was dedicated to the “preservation of the heritage, identity, and future of European people in the US and elsewhere.” Spencer might have ended his speech declaring that America belonged to Europeans. But he knew his moment. America belonged to white people.

“America was, until this past generation, a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity. It is our creation; it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us.”

This was met with a roar of approval from the hundred or so men assembled, culminating in scattered, stiff-armed Nazi salutes, like a mini-Nuremberg rally. He acknowledged these with a sloppy salute, not bothering to put down his drink. A clip of this went viral. I watched it while tracing the arc of Spencer’s journey from obscurity to Charlottesville. And when I did, something about the world I had known abruptly shifted....

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