Healing from Hate: How Young Men Get into -and out of-Violent Extremism

Abstract

Healing from Hate, written by the renowned sociologist and expert on masculinities, Michael Kimmel, has a truly interdisciplinary scope, which addresses the interests of political and social scientists, who work on populism, extremism, far-right movements, masculinities, race, ethnicity and whiteness studies, gender studies, youth culture, intersectionality, identity, power structures and inequalities. The author’s avoidance of opaque theoretical discussions and positioning of himself both as a curious researcher and a person who is concerned about the global popularity of the extremist movements he works, make this book beyond an academic one, and a must-read for the related non-governmental organizations’ (NGO’s) or governmental organizations’ shareholders. Kimmel’s analysis, a “gendered political psychology of extremism” (p. 234), as described the by the author himself, includes the biographies of men, who had been involved in different far-right movements such as Neo-Nazis and Jihadists, and jumped out of these movements, after feeling disillusioned, disheartened and alienated because of their experiences, observations and reflections during the times they were a part of those movements.

Keywords

• Violent
• Masculinity
• Gender
• Hate