In 1996, British author Nick Ryan began a 6 year project, traveling

among white nationalists to gather information for a book. He visited

with participants in the movement in England, the U.S., Germany and

Belgium, among other nations. His book has already been released in

England, where the title is HOMELAND, Into a World of Hate. It will be

released in the U.S. on May 15, under the title INTO A WORLD OF HATE, A

Journey Among the Extreme Right.
If you read for information, you will find a lot in this book. Even

if you regard yourself as an expert on these things, there is likely to

be something in this book that you don't know that you might want to.
For example, back around '87 or '88 I swapped a few letters with

Third Way out in Virginia. They were selling copies of Gaddafi's (Ryan's spelling) GREEN BOOK. They made it sound interesting so I ordered a copy through the

Inter Library Loan system and it came in from the university library in

Athens Georgia. Now, years later, I am amused to find this passage in

Ryan's book, regarding a visit by the National Front to Libya:

"They wanted support from the regime that previously shipped arms to

the IRA and which they had first approached shortly before WPC Yvonne

Fletcher died outside the Libyan Embassy in London, shot by a Libyan

agent.
In the end, all they got were 5,000 copies of Colonel Muammar

Gadaffi's GREEN BOOK."

According to Ryan, when the National Front fell apart, one of its

members went on to form the International Third Position.

There are loads of such details in the book. But you will have to

work for it. The index is stingy, the glossary is stingier and there is

no bibliography at all. Ryan mentions numerous publications throughout

the text but does not bother to provide a list for the convenience of

the reader.
There are no charts or graphs either, though the way the main

figures in the book hop from organization to organization and pop in

and out of the story, a couple of link charts ... at the very least ...

would be a Godsend.
Curiously, there are no photos. Imagine spending 6 years

interviewing hooligans and terrorists and attending their public court

trials and their street demonstrations and not having any photos at

all. Not even one.
Even simply scanning the book for facts will be difficult, because

its is not a factual, linear commentary. Ryan has fashioned it into a

personal tale of his own big adventure. You will have to dig through

such things as descriptive passages of the pubs and other places in which he sits,

drinking one thing or another, to interview his subjects. His

interviews are presented as dialogue, played out in detail between

himself and his subject, including micro-detailing of the interviewee,

the locale and Ryan's feelings about the whole thing.
If you read for entertainment you will fare a bit better. He knows

his way around a phrase. Here's an example.

"Then it happened.
An enormous bang, a crash followed by the telltale 'crump' and

shockwave. For one small second she stopped. They all did. But as she

later told me, she knew instantly it was a bomb. 'Judy!' she shrieked,

hands flying to her mouth, tears already starting to course down her

face. 'No!' She turned to her partner, mouth open her legs beginning to

move her away from the counter.
A wave of dust and glass billowed over the street. There was a

moment of silence. The teller smiled at her nervously. Then she rushed

outside, ignoring the cries of alarm from behind her, thinking the Tube

had been targeted. Where her sister had just gone.
'Get out of here, get the fuck out of here!' A plain-clothes cop,

stomach rippling out over a flapping shirt, waved his hands furiously

at the shocked pedestrians. 'Move! It's a bomb! screamed another, water

streaming over his head and down onto the glinting badge. She was

pushed backwards, but could see the station was still untouched. Fifty

yards down the road, though, was another story. Wounded shapes, some

missing limbs, others with nails sticking from eyes, fingers and other

parts of their bodies, writhed in agony on the ground. Bone protruded

from flesh. Nearby, someone stared silently down at his foot. It was

pointed backwards.
Then the screams started."


There are some elements of his presentation that will be a matter

of personal taste among readers. For one, its in first person.

Secondly, it contains long descriptive passages. Thirdly it has

numerous, very long sections of dialogue, pages and pages at a time.

Fourthly, he tends to be rude and harsh when describing the people ne

encounters. Downright snotty at times.
Look at these passages:

"The one major odd feature is his left eye. It's placid, still, a

different colour to his right. Small deposits of crusty goo collect at

its edges. It's fake, I realise."

"The sight of fat Americans, wedged with their tiny legs into

cruising automatics, makes a smile surface onto my lips."

These are the elements he has built into his book. If you happen

to like all of those features, you will enjoy reading the book. If you

dislike them all, you will find yourself struggling.
His inclusion of himself in the story, in first person narrative,

is of doubtful value to the book. His wisdom is even more doubtful when

it comes to constantly reminding the reader of the terrible dangers of

the project and his continual fear for life and limb.
Maybe pampered yuppie housewives, party crazy frat boys and mall

rats would be impressed by this, but chances are none of them will be

reading this book. More likely it will be sold to teachers and

political scholars, investigators, anti-racists and the white

nationalists themselves. Many of those people face their own risks

because of their participation in the scene, from physical assaults, to

arrest and imprisonment, to loss of employment. His most interested

readers are likely to regard him as a wimp. Really, if it's really all

that bad he could always take a job at the mill.
There's no real story here, its more like a travelogue, a National

Geographic sort of view into a land of strange people with strange

ways. But there are loads of details, with names and places and dates

and a dizzying whirl of political connections. If you have an interest

in the racialist / white nationalist scene it's well worth a read.

By Elaine Long, former publisher the Crystal Rain Agency, Maxine's

Pages and Coyote's Journal.

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For more information on Nick Ryan and his exploration and travels

into far-right extremism, please visit his website at www.NickRyan.net.

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If you would like to schedule and interview with Nick Ryan,

please contact Lizzy Mason at 917-351-7108 or

Elizabeth.Mason-AT-TaylorandFrancis.com.