The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right
This article places the intellectual inspirations behind the white nationalism of the Alt-Right in a Transatlantic context. It does so by first focusing on the late 1960s and the rise of New Right Movements throughout Europe that sprang up as a response to the New Left, which involved a hatred of liberal internationalism and multiculturalism, a thorough critique of global capitalism, and, in one way or another, promoted an identitarian form of race-based politics. The pivotal New Right figure here is Alain de Benoist whose key ideas this paper will summarize. The paper then shows how Benoist’s thought made its way into United States by the 1990s. I will conclude by unpacking a strange argument that it was in fact cultural Marxists, and specifically European émigré thinkers fleeing the Nazis, who provided a model for how the alt-Right could pursue a cultural revolution that would overthrow liberal understandings of race and identity.
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Steinmetz Jenkins, D. (2018). The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, 38(2), 255-266. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025
AMA
Steinmetz Jenkins D. The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology. 2018;38(2):255-266. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025
ABNT
Steinmetz Jenkins, D. The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, [Publisher Location], v. 38, n. 2, p. 255-266, 2018.
Chicago: Author-Date Style
Steinmetz Jenkins, Daniel,. 2018. “The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right.” İstanbul University Journal of Sociology 38, no. 2: 255-266. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025
Chicago: Humanities Style
Steinmetz Jenkins, Daniel,. “The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right.” İstanbul University Journal of Sociology 38, no. 2 (Sep. 2025): 255-266. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025
Harvard: Australian Style
Steinmetz Jenkins, D 2018, 'The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right', İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 255-266, viewed 14 Sep. 2025, https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025
Harvard: Author-Date Style
Steinmetz Jenkins, D. (2018) ‘The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right’, İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, 38(2), pp. 255-266. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025 (14 Sep. 2025).
MLA
Steinmetz Jenkins, Daniel,. “The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right.” İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, vol. 38, no. 2, 2018, pp. 255-266. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025
Vancouver
Steinmetz Jenkins D. The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology [Internet]. 14 Sep. 2025 [cited 14 Sep. 2025];38(2):255-266. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025 doi: 10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025
ISNAD
Steinmetz Jenkins, Daniel. “The European Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right”. İstanbul University Journal of Sociology 38/2 (Sep. 2025): 255-266. https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2018.38.2.0025
