Dr Julia Ebner is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author of several books. Her first book The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017) won the Bruno Kreisky Award for the 2018 Political Book of the Year. Her second book Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists (Bloomsbury, 2020) was an international bestseller and has been translated into seven languages. It won the award ‘Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2020’ (Science Book of the Year 2020), as well as the Dr Caspar Einem prize and was long listed for the Gold Dagger Award. Her latest book Going Mainstream: How Extremists Are Taking Over (Ithaka Press, 2023) is out now.
Going MainstreamHow extremists are taking over
Selected by Apple as Audiobook of the Month, June 2023
List of Best Books of Deutschlandfunk Kultur, ZDF and ZEIT
The internationally bestselling author of Going Dark: the secret social lives of extremists returns to explore why radical ideas are increasingly infiltrating politics, popular culture and our everyday lives.
Incels. Anti Vaxxers. Conspiracy theorists. Neo-Nazis. Once, these groups all belonged on the fringes of the political spectrum. Today, accelerated by a pandemic, global conflict and rapid technological change, their ideas are becoming more widespread: QAnon proponents run for U.S. Congress, neo-fascists win elections in Europe, and celebrity influencers spread dangerous myths to millions. Going Mainstream asks the question: What is happening here?
Going undercover online and in person, UK counter-extremism expert Julia Ebner reveals how, united by a shared sense of grievance and scepticism about institutions, radicalised individuals are influencing the mainstream as never before. Hidden from public scrutiny, they leverage social media to create alternative information ecosystems and build sophisticated networks funded by dark money.
Ebner's candid conversations with extremists offer a nuanced and gripping insight into why people have turned to the fringes. She explores why outlandish ideas have taken hold and disinformation is spreading faster than ever. And she speaks to the activists and educators who are fighting to turn the tide.
Going Mainstream is a dispatch from the darkest front of the culture wars, and a vital wake-up call.
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Featured in the Media
Praise for Going Mainstream
'With unparalleled insight and urgency, Ebner reveals the dangerous spread of extremist beliefs. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the terrifying new reality we face' — Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat
‘[Ebner] spells out the scale, speed and fluid nature of the new extremisms . . . you don’t have to look far to see evidence of her thesis.’ —The Times
Piercingly revelatory ... a tour de force' — Carl Miller, author of The Death of the Gods
'A haunting and essential account of how so many people around the world have embraced extreme ideas' — Cynthia Miller-Idris, author of Hate in the Homeland
'A timely and frighteningly revealing book. It should be on the shelves of every Western spy agency working to defeat extremist ideologies' — Richard Kerbaj, author of The Secret History of the Five Eyes
‘Ebner has mastered all the rules of reportage’ — Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
‘Julia Ebner deals with a fundamentally important subject, and she writes engagingly, impressively and often very emotionally.’ —Deutschlandfunk
'A sober and sobering read that helps disentangle an important though often misunderstood phenomenon' — Sunday Business Post
‘Looks at precisely these forces from the margins and extremes of politics, as they go right to the middle of what we’re talking about every day.’ — Aaron Bastani, Novara Media
Going DarkThe Secret Social Lives of Extremists
By day, Julia Ebner works at a counter-extremism think tank, monitoring radical groups from the outside. But two years ago, she began to feel she was only seeing half the picture; she needed to get inside the groups to truly understand them. She decided to go undercover in her spare hours - late nights, holidays, weekends - adopting five different identities, and joining a dozen extremist groups from across the ideological spectrum.
Her journey would take her from a Generation Identity global strategy meeting in a pub in Mayfair, to a Neo-Nazi Music Festival on the border of Germany and Poland. She would get relationship advice from 'Trad Wives' and Jihadi Brides and hacking lessons from ISIS. She was in the channels when the alt-right began planning the lethal Charlottesville rally, and spent time in the networks that would radicalise the Christchurch terrorist.
In Going Dark, Ebner takes the reader on a deeply compulsive journey into the darkest recesses of extremist thinking, exposing how closely we are surrounded by their fanatical ideology every day, the changing nature and practice of these groups, and what is being done to counter them.
A Telegraph Book of the Year 2020
Guardian, New Scientist, Bustle, Stylist pick for 2020
Waterstones' pick of Best Books of 2020
Winner of the Austrian Science Book of the Year 2020 – Austrian Ministry of Education
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Praise for Going Dark
'Engaging and visceral ... Reads like a thriller' ― Financial Times
'Riveting and often deeply disturbing ... A punch to the stomach' ― The Sunday Times
'Fascinating and important' ― Spectator
'Ebner has done some gutsy, thought-provoking research' ― Sunday Telegraph
‘A scintillating journey into a secret world that is impacting our everyday lives in ways we are only just starting to grasp’ ― Peter Pomerantsev, author of This is Not Propaganda
‘Humanising, engrossing and alarming. Going Dark is not just an overdue, almost exhaustive journey of research into the lives of extremists, it is a public service’ ― Nesrine Malik, author of We Need New Stories
‘A troubling visit to online places of radicalisation’ — Times Literary Supplement
‘Ebner regales us with beyond-satire reports of her encounters with the web’s wilder-eyed’ — Daily Telegraph
‘Going Dark makes for terrifying reading, but it’s all the more essential for that’ — Stylist
‘A chilling, compulsive investigation’ — Standpoint
‘Going Dark deserves a wide readership. It offers an accessible and engaging introduction to some of the most dangerous com- munities online – and to the methods that enable them to grow’ — Sydney Morning Herald
‘Ebner draws on her theoretical and practical expertise to explain how online extremist groups recruit and radicalise members and then employ various highly effective tactics to further their strategic goals…. What renders this book unique … are the author’s detailed accounts of going deep undercover. ’ —The Journal of Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry
THE RAGEThe Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism
Selected by the Guardian as one of the best ten books for understanding the threat of terrorism
Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book of the Year 2018
Shortlisted for the NDR Kultur Sachbuchpreis
The early twenty-first century has been defined by a rise in Islamist radicalisation and a concurrent rise in far right extremism. This book explores the interaction between the 'new' far right and Islamist extremists and considers the consequences for the global terror threat. Julia Ebner argues that far right and Islamist extremist narratives - 'The West is at war with Islam' and 'Muslims are at war with the West' - complement each other perfectly, making the two extremes rhetorical allies and building a spiralling torrent of hatred - 'The Rage'.
By looking at extremist movements both online and offline, she shows how far right and Islamist extremists have succeeded in penetrating each other's echo chambers as a result of their mutually useful messages. Based on first-hand interviews, this book introduces readers to the world of reciprocal radicalisation and the hotbeds of extremism that have developed - with potentially disastrous consequences - in the UK, Europe and the US.
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Praise for The Rage
‘Julia Ebner astutely examines the rise of rightwing hate rhetoric alongside Salafi-jihadist violence’ — Iain Overton, The Guardian
‘Compelling, insightful and highly readable’ — Peter R. Neumann, author of Radicalized
‘An Excellent Debut: Informed, well-researched and thoughtful’ — Jamie Bartlett, author of Radicals
‘Essential Reading’ — Paul Rodgers, author of Irregular War
‘An Excellent master course for those seeking to understand the growth of fanaticism’ — Ed Husain, author of The Islamist
‘The most important contribution to this burgeoning subject to date’ — Matthew Feldman, Professor of Contemporary History, Teesside University
‘Ebner draws on the very latest evidence to deliver important new analysis of two seemingly opposing forms of extremism and their mutually reinforcing worldviews’ — Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol
‘The Rage reads like a novel but unfortunately its story is non-fiction’ — Editor-in-Chief, Perspectives on Terrorism
‘There couldn’t be a more appropriately timed book than The Rage by Julia Ebner… The Rage is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the interconnected nature of extremism’ — Chris Sampson, co-author of Hacking ISIS
‘[Ebner] marshals facts well, identifies trends clearly, endeavours to contextualise her viewpoint and has a flair for the illustrative anecdote.’ — Survival: Global Politics and Strategy
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