Living Right

A sobering look at the seductive power of fascist ideas for the young

Radical nationalism is on the rise in Europe and throughout the world. Living Right provides an in-depth account of the ideas and practices that are driving the varied forms of far-right activism by young people from all walks of life. It reveals how these social movements offer the promise of comradeship, purpose, and a moral calling to self-sacrifice, and demonstrates how far-right ideas are understood and lived in ways that speak to a variety of experiences.

In this eye-opening book, Agnieszka Pasieka draws on her own sometimes harrowing fieldwork among Italian, Polish, and Hungarian militant youths. She paints unforgettable portraits of students, labourers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and activists from well-off middle-class backgrounds who have all found a nurturing home in the far right. Providing an in-depth account of radical nationalist communities and networks that are taking root across Europe, she shows how the simultaneous orientation of these groups toward the local and the transnational is a key to their success.

With a focus on far-right morality that challenges commonly held ideas about the right, Pasieka describes how far-right movements afford opportunities to the young to be active members of tightly bonded comradeships while sharing in a broader project with global ramifications.

Required reading for anthropologists and anyone concerned about the resurgence of far-right militancy today, Living Right sheds necessary light on the forces that have made the growing appeal of fascist idealism for young people one of the most alarming trends of our time.