Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook is a 2017 book by historian Mark Bray, which explores the history of anti-fascist movements since the 1920s and 1930s and their contemporary resurgence.

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook
AuthorMark Bray
Audio read byKeith Szarabajka
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectSocial movements
PublisherMelville House
Publication date
August 2017
Pages288
ISBN978-1-61219-703-6

Content

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook details the emergence of anti-fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, and offers an analysis of contemporary anti-fascist movements, particularly antifa in the United States. Bray argues in his book that militant anti-fascism is a reasonable and legitimate political tradition, and describes his book as "an unabashedly partisan call to arms that aims to equip a new generation of anti-fascists with the history and theory necessary to defeat the resurgent far-right". Interviews that Bray conducted with antifa activists are also included in the book.[1][2]

Reception

The San Francisco Chronicle praised the book's writing, calling Bray's analysis "methodical and informative" and his arguments "incisive and cohesive".[3] Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post commented that "the book's most enlightening contribution is on the history of anti-fascist efforts over the past century, but its most relevant for today is its justification for stifling speech and clobbering white supremacists".[4]

Historian Paul Gottfried writes in Chronicles that "In Bray’s Handbook, one finds the present left joining up with the interwar Communists and anarchists in what looks like an alternate universe".[5]

Green Left called it "a useful guide to the vital work that groups such as Antifa do in opposing the far right".[6]

Michael Novick praises it from drawing lessons from the failures early anti-fascist activists to prevent the rise to power of Mussolini and Hitler, but criticises the book for "not fully grasp[ing] the deep roots of fascism in US settler colonialism".[7]

Zachary Yost in The American Conservative criticized the book, for its call to violence, silencing of free speech, and Bray's use of the term fascism.[8]

References
  1. Flood, Alison (August 22, 2017). "Antifa: the Anti-fascist Handbook – 'What Trump said made the book seem even more urgent'". The Guardian. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  2. Penny, Daniel (August 22, 2017). "An Intimate History of Antifa". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  3. Tucker, Eric; Flaccus, Gillian; Madhani, Aamer (June 2, 2020). "A look at the antifa movement Trump is blaming for violence". San Francisco Chronicle. AP. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  4. Lozada, Carlos (September 1, 2017). "The history, theory and contradictions of antifa". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 3, 2017. Retrieved October 1, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. Gottfried, Paul. "The Old Left Wasn't Very Leftist".
  6. Salmon, Alex (February 15, 2018). "A useful insider's guide to Antifa". Green Left. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  7. Novick, Michael (September 2017). "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook/Against the Fascist Creep". Turning the Tide. 29 (5): 5. ISSN 1082-6491.
  8. Yost, Zachary. "Antifa's Handbook: A Primer On Violent Illiberalism".


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