The burgeoning far-right movement, with pervasive elements of white nationalism and fascism, is among the most troubling developments in contemporary politics. These forces, once relegated to the fringes, have been incorporated in many ways into mainstream politics, media, and society. Yet Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph E. Lowndes state in their fascinating new book Producers, Parasites, Patriots that only by providing a more critical understanding of contemporary right-wing politics can we be prepared to resist the growth of far-right movements. The authors provide this by critically analyzing the shifting and “mutually generative” relationship between race and class and by specifying the ways both are used by the American right (p. 10).

Following the Great Recession, the racialized charge of parasitic behavior was used to demonize unions and public sector employees and build support for anti-statist policies. Consequently, the dividing line between producers and parasites has shifted such that a large proportion of whites, who have historically been exempt, are now included in the category of parasites. White political identity is thus being mobilized “in the context of material crisis and abandonment” (p. 48).

While economic precarity and feelings of political powerlessness manifest in anti-statism among many wh