From Yale professor and bestselling author of How Fascism Works, a searing confrontation with the authoritarian right’s attacks to undo a century of work to advance social justice action on race, gender, sexuality and class.
Combining historical research with an in-depth analysis of our modern political landscape, Erasing History issues a dire warning for the world: the worst fascist movements of humanity’s past began in schools; the same place so many of today’s right-wing political parties have trained their most vicious attacks.
Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recip Erdogan, and Argentina’s Javier Milei have all reached the same conclusion: if you want to roll back the clock on civil rights, equity and inclusion, a great place to start is in schools.
Yale professor Jason Stanley exposes the true danger of the right’s tactics and traces their inspirations and funding back to some of the most dangerous ideas of human history. He shows that hearts and minds are won in our schools and universities – and that governments are currently ill-prepared to do the work of uprooting fascist policies being foisted upon our children through school boards, in courtrooms, and in the boardrooms of the organisations trusted to train teachers and create the materials they’ll share with their students.
Deeply informed and urgently needed, this book is a vibrant call to action for lovers of democracy worldwide.
‘Erasing History is both sequel and prequel to Jason Stanley’s invaluable How Fascism Works, a sweeping survey of this global fascist moment’s anti-education tide. From India to Turkey, from Russia to Florida – and maybe soon in a classroom near you – gross declarations of supremacist nationalism are becoming awful substitutes for historical inquiry. Erasing History, fast-paced and up-to-the-minute, tells us how it’s happening and why the past is a front line in the struggle for a future free of fascism’ – Jeff Sharlet, author of THE UNDERTOW: SCENES FROM A SLOW CIVIL WAR
‘Jason Stanley has been the essential voice for anyone seeking an unflinching account of the fascist dimensions of the current moment. In his latest contribution, Stanley turns his attention to the fascist attacks on institutions-in this case, schools and universities. Erasing History delivers a vital decoding of the wide-ranging effort of a small but well-organized and well-resourced faction seeking to consolidate power by censoring knowledge and rewriting the past. Their efforts to undermine faith in education weakens the role of institutions that have served as laboratories for democracy. Stanley has provided a clear-eyed account of how the survival of our democracy must be routed through a deepened literacy about our past and the myriad efforts to mystify and deny it’ – Kimberlé Crenshaw, cofounder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum and coeditor of CRITICAL RACE THEORY
‘I’ve never read a book that is as timely, urgent, and essential as this one. Erasing History is, at this moment, the only source of knowledge I know of that is a sort of battle plan for keeping this nation from falling into fascism. You must read this book’ – Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of THE CONDEMNATION OF BLACKNESS and professor of African American Studies and Public Affairs at Princeton University
‘Simply put, Stanley has laid out the blueprint for the worldwide fascist attack on history. A must-read to fight authoritarianism and disinformation’ – Anthea Butler, author of WHITE EVANGELICAL RACISM: THE POLITICS OF MORALITY IN AMERICA
‘Jason Stanley has done it again. This urgent, piercing, and altogether brilliant book exposes how the fight to learn from our past is ultimately a fight about the promise of our future. Erasing History unpacks the imperative story of our time: how authoritarianism aims to collapse history into a single drab, monolithic narrative. And how the fight for freedom is one that requires that we disrupt that telling through continued, collective reflection and reimagination’ – Jonathan M. Metzl, author of DYING OF WHITENESS and WHAT WE’VE BECOME: LIVING AND DYING IN A COUNTRY OF ARMS
‘Why are so many actors on the radical right laying siege to our schools? Hint: it’s far more serious than current reporting conveys. In this powerful book, Jason Stanley deftly interweaves his family’s experience under Nazi rule with a far-reaching, lucid explanation of why authoritarians hate honest history. A must-read to understand how much truth-telling matters for multiracial democracy to withstand the siege’ – Nancy MacLean, author of DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS: THE DEEP HISTORY OF THE RADICAL RIGHT’S STEALTH PLAN FOR AMERICA
‘Jason Stanley’s engaging work has taught people in the twenty-first century the anatomy of fascism as a political system. In Erasing History, Stanley dissects the ideological components of the fascist assault on historical teaching, memory, and analysis. He shows how everything from the antisemitic Great Replacement Theory to the vilification of gay people and feminists to the promotion of myths of national purity and historical innocence all work to demolish democratic agency and freedom. But he leaves us with the sense that those who fight for the past can save the future’ – Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), author of UNTHINKABLE: TRAUMA, TRUTH AND THE TRIALS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of six books and writes frequently about propaganda, free speech, mass incarceration, democracy and authoritarianism for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and many other media outlets.