Finally, after threatening for so many years (to the point where apparently some people didn’t believe it would be finished), Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege is finally a real, physical object that you can purchase and hold in your hands!! It’s 484 pages of neo-Nazi networks, Satanists, terrorism, the Manson Family, serial killers, and fascist counterculturalists. You can buy a copy through Routledge.
The publisher’s description and chapters are below. I will be giving an online book release talk at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research on Thursday, May 30 at 1PM EST. That event will be held on zoom and is free, but you need to register in advance.
I will also be doing talks in support of the book, starting at the end of May in Europe. The details are being hammered down, but right now I have: Hamburg on May 29 and 31, Berlin on June 4 and 6, Oslo on June 10, Leipzig on June 13, and London on June 19 and 20. I’ll also be doing U.S. talks in July and the fall. I’m trying to set up some East Coast gigs in September, but right now there is one in Portland on November 14 and two in the Asheville, NC area on November 24 and 27. Stay tuned for details!
Publishers Description:
A new wave of aspiring neo-Nazi terrorists has arisen—including the infamous Atomwaffen Division. And they have a bible: James Mason’s Siege, which praises terrorism, serial killers, and Charles Manson. Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism, based on years of archival work and interviews, documents for the first time the origins of Siege.
First, it shows how Mason’s vision arose from debates by 1970s neo-Nazis who splintered off the American Nazi Party/National Socialist White People’s Party and spun off a terrorist faction. Second, it unveils how four 1980s countercultural figures—musicians Boyd Rice and Michael Moynihan, Feral House publisher Adam Parfrey, and Satanist Nikolas Schreck—discovered, promoted, and published Mason. Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism explores a previously overlooked period and unearths the hidden connections between a countercultural clique and violent neo-Nazis—which together have set the template for today’s Neo-nazi terrorist underground. It is obligatory reading for those interested in contemporary terrorism, postwar countercultures, and the history of the U.S. Far Right and neo-Nazism.
Part I: #ReadSiege
1. A Twenty-First Century Siege: How the Rediscovery of an Obscure Neo-Nazi Book Helped Inspire A New Generation of White Supremacist Terrorism
Part II: Life Among the Sects (1959–1986)
2. The Party of Rockwell: The American Nazi Party and NSWPP
3. Joseph Tommasi’s NSLF
4. A Tangled Web of Neo-Nazis: David Rust’s NSLF, the NSM, the White Confederacy, and the National Socialist Congress
5. Allen Vincent’s NSWWP and John Duffy’s Shadow NSLF
6. Karl Hand’s NSLF
Part III: SIEGE the Newsletter (1980–1986)
7. The SIEGE Itself: Cult of the Extreme
8. Charles Manson as Neo-Nazi “Holy Man”
9. Universal Order as Idea and Organization
10. Life After SIEGE
Part IV: Countercultural Fascism (1986–1995)
11. The Abraxas Clique and Countercultural Fascism
12. Boyd Rice: Neo-Nazi Collaborator
13. Adam Parfrey: A Neo-Nazi’s Best Friend
14. Michael Moynihan: From Mason-Manson-National Socialism to Decentralized Ethno-separatism
15. Nazi-Satanism: Nikolas Schreck and the Church of Satan
Part V: Siege the Book (1989–1995)
16. The Book and the Reception
Part VI: Coda (1995–2017)
17. From Prison to Revival
18. The Lessons of Siege
Part VII: Appendices
Appendix 1. The NSM After Mason: Brannen, Herrington, Schoep, and Beyond
Appendix 2. The Original NSLF and David Duke: Big Nazi on Campus
Appendix 3. Gary/John Jewell and Perry “Red” Warthan: From Anarchism to National Socialism
Appendix 4. In Praise of Murder Men: Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, and Lone Wolves
Appendix 5. Christianity: Jesus, Hitler, Rockwell, Manson, and UFOs
Appendix 6. Women, Gay Men, and Extreme Pornography Appendix
7. Against Capitalism and the Liberal State: The Left, Third Positionism, Islamists, and Racial Separatism
Appendix 8. Robert N. Taylor and Thomas Thorn
Appendix 9. Michael Merritt and Keith Stimely
BLURBS
“Spellbinding in a revolting yet masterful way.”
—Chip Berlet, co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort“Spencer Sunshine’s new book Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism is a tour de force for understanding America’s contemporary white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements. It teases out the largely unexplored history of this movement’s last 50 years, and provides the definitive account of how James Mason’s Siege became the leading tome for today’s far right extremists. The book is filled with details from the movement’s major and minor players, much of which has never been documented. This is a must read for those who want to understand our country’s history of white supremacy and the nature of the movement today.”
—Heidi Beirich, co-founder, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism“Sunshine has written the definitive book that exposes and links the old guard of American neo-Nazism to the modern day (and beyond) wave of white-power terrorism. A fascinating read!
—Christian Picciolini, author of White American Youth: My Descent Into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out“It is rare to find a study that combines grassroots anti-fascist research with the tools of scholarly analysis. Spencer Sunshine’s detailed and discerning book examines neo-Nazism as a social movement and takes seemingly obscure ideas seriously, bringing critical attention to the history of countercultural crossover with the radical right. Anybody concerned with the incongruous resurgence of supposedly fringe political phenomena will learn sobering lessons from this book.”
—Peter Staudenmaier, Marquette University, USA“The deepest dive yet into the godfather of modern neo-Nazi terrorism, told through the rare lens of James Mason’s own writings. This book is essential reading to those hoping to understand the origins and nuances of violent right-wing extremism today.”
—Jared Holt, Senior Research Analyst, Institute for Strategic Dialogue

A MUST read!!
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I just read the book a couple of days ago and was very impressed. I live in Oroville and Perry “Red” Warthan has been a figure I’ve heard about since I was a child since my dad grew up with and went to school with his accomplices as well as the victim Joseph Hoover. My dad (who is not white) was especially surprised at the time since he had previously been to parties with Rafe Barker and didn’t see him as someone particularly pre-disposed to becoming a neo-Nazi.
I also know some of the people who organized the anti-racist demonstrations after the murder, like Denise-Judy Johnson and Clay Canady (RIP).
You were the first completely clear account I could find about Warthan’s past connections with the IWW. I had always assumed he was some dumbass lifestyle Anarchist who had briefly passed through the IWW like many other self-described Anarchists will do. The fact that he was actually a very active and relatively prominent member who vocally supported more inclusion of women and LGBT people in the union was a surprise to me. People I know in the IWW hadn’t heard of him before, but it could very well be that the comrades who are old enough to know better are too embarrassed to want to talk about Jewell and Warthan.
Warthan is unfortunately not the only prominent Nazi to live in Oroville either. We’ve still got one…Greg Withrow who formed the “White Student Union” in Sacramento and was later part of WAR lives in town. I have the dubious honor of him recognizing me from left-wing demos and my work as a journalist so I will very occasionally see him in public and he will “flip me the bird” before making a quick retreat.
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thanks for your comments! i thought Warthan was the most fascinating of the characters in the book. during his anarchist period, he even championed asexual people! in the 1970s!!
i was able to get copies of all the issues of the Woodstock Anarchist Party magazine as well as the internal IWW bulletins and so see what he was saying at the time – there is a lot of misinformation out there about him, esp in the Meltzer book.
i remember Withrow. i thought he had left the movement? too bad…
if you have any interest, it would be great to give a talk about this in oroville; contact page is on the tab
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