The extreme gone mainstream : commercialization and far right youth culture in Germany

The past decade has witnessed a steady increase in far right politics, social movements, and extremist violence in Europe. Scholars and policymakers have struggled to understand the causes and dynamics that have made the far right so appealing to so many people-in other words, that have made the extreme more mainstream. In this book, Cynthia Miller-Idriss examines how extremist ideologies have entered mainstream German culture through commercialized products and clothing laced with extremist, anti-Semitic, racist, and nationalist coded symbols and references. Drawing on a unique digital archive of thousands of historical and contemporary images, as well as scores of interviews with young people and their teachers in two German vocational schools with histories of extremist youth presence, Miller-Idriss shows how this commercialization is part of a radical transformation happening today in German far right youth subculture. She describes how these young people have gravitated away from the singular, hard-edged skinhead style in favor of sophisticated and fashionable commercial brands that deploy coded extremist symbols. Virtually indistinguishable in style from other popular clothing, the new brands desensitize far right consumers to extremist ideas and dehumanize victims

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• ISBN: 9780691170206 ; 0691170207
• Dimensions: 25 cm
• Extent: xxi, 276 Seiten, 16 ungezählte Seiten
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Illustrationen ; Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-272) and index

Classification and Topics

• Keyword: Rechtsradikalismus ; Politisches Symbol ; Kommerzialisierung ; Jugendkultur ; Konsumgesellschaft ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Princeton, Oxford
• (who): Princeton University Press
• (when): [2017]
• Creator: Miller-Idriss, Cynthia

Further information

• Table of contents: Introduction : selling the right wing -- Trying on extremism : material culture and far right youth -- Branding identity : coded symbols and game playing -- Historical fantasies, fantastical myths : sacred origin narratives -- Dying for a cause, causing death : the threat of violence -- Global symbols, local bans : transnational nationalist symbols -- Soldier, sailor, rebel, rule breaker : embodying extremism -- Conclusion : mainstreaming the extreme.
• Rights: Bei diesem Objekt liegt nur das Inhaltsverzeichnis digital vor. Der Zugriff darauf ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 11.06.2025, 1:40 PM CEST