In a recent article for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Kristen R. Ghodsee discusses Hayek’s Bastards by Quinn Slobodian. Click here to learn more about the book. Click here to read the full review. An excerpt appears below:

“The curious history of the Races of Mankind pamphlet underpins the arguments and observations put forth in historian Quinn Slobodian’s excellent new book, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. A painstakingly detailed account of the origins of the modern alt-right, Slobodian examines what he calls a “frontlash” against neoliberal globalization originating in the immediate aftermath of the end of the Cold War. While some commentators saw the demise of Soviet communism through a triumphalist prism, portraying it as “the end of history,” these proto-alt-righters asserted that socialism insidiously persisted domestically in egalitarian social movements. Although the Cold War forced the American government to champion narratives about equality of opportunity, what Slobodian calls the “pro-differences” narrative always simmered beneath the surface: the idea that racial and sexual differences were embedded in our genes and that no amount of social engineering could alter the fundamental truth that minorities and women were biologically inferior. This worldview justified neoliberal attacks on the redistributive politics of the welfare state. Why support social programs to equalize chances for all Americans when a majority of them (women plus all Black and Hispanic Americans) were destined to fail anyway?”