The Turner Diaries

The Turner Diaries is a 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald.[1] The Turner Diaries depicts a violent revolution in the United States which leads to the overthrow of the federal government, a nuclear war, and, ultimately, a race war which leads to the systematic extermination of non-whites.[2][3] All groups opposed by the novel's protagonist, Earl Turner, including Jews, non-whites, "liberal actors" and politicians, are exterminated.[4]

The Turner Diaries
Cover of the first edition
AuthorWilliam Luther Pierce (as Andrew Macdonald)
IllustratorDennis Nix
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenrePolitical novel
PublisherNational Vanguard Books
Publication date
1978
Media typePrint
Pages211 (2nd ed.)
ISBN0-937-94402-5 2nd edition, paperback
LC ClassPS3563.A2747
Followed byHunter 

The Turner Diaries was described as "explicitly racist and anti-Semitic" by The New York Times and it has also been labeled the "bible of the racist right" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[5][6] The book was greatly influential in shaping white nationalism and the later development of the white genocide theory. It has also inspired numerous hate crimes and acts of terrorism, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the 1999 London nail bombings, and the 1984 assassination of Alan Berg.[7][8][9]

Synopsis

The protagonist, Earl Turner, takes part in the apocalyptic overthrow of the United States federal government (referred to as "the System" throughout the novel). Turner and his fellow insurgents wage a race war which begins in North America and spreads to the rest of the world.

Plot
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Antisemitism
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A framing device which takes place in 2099 (a hundred years after the events depicted) gives the novel's main text a historical context, which is presented as the journal of Earl Turner, an active member of a white revolutionary movement. As the story begins, the federal government has confiscated all civilian firearms in the country under the Cohen Act. Turner and his cohorts take their organization underground in order to wage a guerrilla war against the System, which is depicted as being under Jewish control.[4] The "System" begins by implementing numerous repressive laws against various forms of hate, by making it a hate crime for white people to defend themselves when crimes are committed against them by non-whites even after all weapons have been confiscated, and pushing for new surveillance measures in order to monitor its citizens, such as requiring them to possess a special passport at all times and in all places in order to permanently monitor where individuals are. The "Organization" starts its campaigns by committing acts such as the bombing of the FBI headquarters, then executing an ongoing, low-level campaign of resistance, assassination, and economic sabotage throughout the United States.

Turner plays a large part in activities in the Washington, D.C. area. When the President of the United States delivers a speech denouncing racists and demanding that all members of the Organization be brought to justice, Turner and other Organization members launch mortars into the streets of Washington from far away, forcing the president and other government officials to be evacuated. In another scene, Turner witnesses an anti-racism parade in which whites who are not part of the parade are pulled aside and beaten (sometimes to death) by non-white marchers; the march eventually turns into a full-scale riot. Turner's exploits lead to his initiation into the "Order", a secret rebel group that consists of an elite group of masterminds of the revolution, who are secretly leading the Organization and whose existence remains unknown both to ordinary Organization members and the System.[4] Later, Turner's hideout is raided by law enforcement. During an ensuing gun battle with authorities, everyone in the unit manages to escape but Turner is captured after nearly being killed. He is arrested and sent to a military base for interrogation by the FBI and an Israeli intelligence officer. He is tortured to force the release of information, but resists. The interrogators fail to extract the most valuable pieces of information from him, lacking awareness of the existence of the Order. However, he does reveal some information to them. Months later, other members of the Order rescue him from the prison. They inform him that he will be punished sometime in the future for failing to resist while in captivity. He acknowledges the authority of the Order and pledges to accept whatever punishment they impose, whenever they impose it.

Eventually, the Organization seizes physical control of the nuclear weapons at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California and targets missiles at New York City and Tel Aviv.[10] While in control of California, the Organization ethnically cleanses the area of all non-Aryan whites by forcing them into the East, which is still controlled by the System. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of African Americans are forced into the desert to cause an economical crisis on the System's welfare system and all Jews are beaten, lynched or shot.[10] The resulting racial conflict in the east causes many whites to "wake up" and begin fleeing to Southern California which now becomes a white sanctuary. Deliberately fomenting racial conflict is referred to as "demographic warfare" which begins bringing in new recruits to both the Organization and the Order.[11] During this time, the Organization raids a black sanctuary and discovers a cannibalism operation where blacks kidnap, butcher, and eat whites.

The Organization raids the houses of all individuals who have been reported to be race traitors in some way (such as judges, professors, lawyers, politicians, clergy, journalists, entertainers, etc.), and white women who defiled their race by living with or being married to non-whites. It drags these individuals from their homes and publicly hangs them in the streets in Los Angeles in an event which comes to be known as the "Day of the Rope" (August 1, 1993). Most of these public executions are filmed for propaganda purposes.[10][4] The Organization has little use for most white "mainstream" Americans. Those on the left are seen as dupes or willing agents of the Jews, while conservatives and libertarians are regarded as mere businessmen out for themselves or misguided fools, because, the Organization states, the Jews "took over according to the Constitution, fair and square." Turner and his comrades save their special contempt for the ordinary people, who are seen to care about nothing beyond being kept comfortable and entertained. Once daily life is completely disrupted by the nuclear war it instigated, the Organization opens compounds where food and shelter are available - but those seeking admittance are given a bayonet and told to come back with "the freshly cut head of a non-white person"; those unable or unwilling to pay such an "admittance price" are left to starve, as their death would "improve the race".

The Organization then uses both its southern Californian base of operations and its nuclear weapons to open a wider war in which it launches nuclear strikes against New York City and Israel, initiates a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviet Union, and plants nuclear weapons and new combat units throughout North America. Many major U.S. cities are destroyed, including Baltimore and Detroit. While the United States is being engulfed in a nuclear civil war, governments all over the world begin to fall one by one, and violent anti-Jewish riots break out in the streets. After the nuclear weapons are launched against Israel and Tel Aviv is destroyed, the Arabs take advantage of the opportunity and proceed to swarm into Israel, mostly armed with clubs and knives, and kill all of the Israelis. The governments of France and the Netherlands collapse, and the Soviet Union falls apart while it is seeing a surge in anti-Semitic violence. Meanwhile, the United States is put in a state of absolute martial law and transformed into a military dictatorship. The United States government decides to launch an invasion of the Organization's stronghold in Southern California. The leaders of the Order now inform Earl Turner of his punishment for having failed to resist his Jewish interrogators during his captivity: he must pilot a crop duster equipped with a nuclear warhead and destroy the Pentagon in a kamikaze-type suicide-strike, before the invasion can be ordered.

The epilogue summarizes how the Organization went on to conquer the rest of the world and how all non-white races were eliminated. Africa was invaded; all of its black inhabitants were killed. Puerto Ricans (described as a "repulsive mongrel race") were killed and Puerto Rico was recolonized. After China attempts to invade European Russia, the Organization attacks its with nuclear, chemical, radiological and biological weapons which render the entire continent of Asia uninhabitable and rife with "mutants". In the United States, the last remaining non-whites are hunted down, along with all of the individuals who are involved in organized crime (such as the Mafia).

One of the last steps in the Organization's victory is its truce with the remainder of the American military's generals, who agree to surrender if the former swears not to harm them or their immediate families. The Organization gladly accepts. The epilogue concludes with the statement that "just 110 years after the birth of the 'Great One', the dream of a white world finally became a certainty... and the Order would spread its wise and benevolent rule over the earth for all time to come."[4]

Publication history

The Turner Diaries was originally published in a serial form in the National Alliance publication Attack! between 1975 and 1978,[12] with one chapter released per issue during this period.[13] Enthusiastic reactions among racist sympathizers led Pierce to self-publish the story as a paper-bound book in 1978.[14] Artist Dennis Nix contributed to the illustrations.[15] The main story was originally set up in the 1980s, but Pierce changed it to the 1990s when the series was collected to be published as a book in 1978.[13]

The Turner Diaries was initially only sold via mail order from the National Alliance headquarters in Virginia.[16] It had sold 200,000 copies by the late 1990s according to self-estimates generally considered reliable by scholars.[17][18] Other estimates have given the figure of 500,000 copies sold as of 2000.[16][1]

Commentary

John Sutherland, in a 1996 essay for the London Review of Books, wrote that "The Turner Diaries is not the work of a Holocaust-denier (although Pierce gives us plenty of that) so much as a would-be Holocaust-repeater."[10]

The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls it a "hate book".[19]

Political influence

Analysis

The Anti-Defamation League identified The Turner Diaries as "probably the most widely-read book among far-right extremists; many [of them] have cited it as the inspiration behind their terrorist organizing and activities."[4] The Policy on the Classification of Hate Propaganda, Sedition and Treason of the Canada Border Services Agency has classified The Turner Diaries as hate-propaganda literature that cannot be imported to Canada.[20][21]

The phrase "day of the rope" has also become common in white nationalist and alt-right Internet circles, referring to an event in the novel where all "race traitors" are publicly hanged.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28]

White supremacist terrorism

The following terrorist attacks have been linked to The Turner Diaries:

  • The Order (1983–84) was a white supremacist, terrorist organization which named itself after the political organization which is discussed in The Turner Diaries (1978). The Order murdered three people, including the talk radio host Alan Berg, and committed numerous robberies, counterfeiting operations, and acts of violence in an effort to provoke a race war in the United States.[29]
  • Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, was found with pages from The Turner Diaries after the attack. His attack closely resembled the bombing of the FBI's headquarters in the novel.[30]
  • John William King was convicted of dragging James Byrd, an African American, to his death in Jasper, Texas in 1998. As King shackled Byrd's legs to his truck, he was reported to have said, "We're going to start The Turner Diaries early."[31]
  • David Copeland, a British neo-Nazi who killed three people in a bombing campaign against London's black, Asian, and gay communities in April 1999, quoted from The Turner Diaries while being interviewed by police.[32]
  • A copy of The Turner Diaries and other neo-Nazi propaganda were found in the home of Jacob D. Robida who attacked three men at a gay bar in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 2006. Robida fled, killing a hostage and a police officer before committing suicide.[33]
  • A copy of The Turner Diaries and neo-Nazi propaganda and items which are associated with white supremacy and Nazism were found in the house of Zack Davies, who was convicted of a racist murder attempt in Mold, Flintshire, UK, in September 2015.[34]
  • The National Socialist Underground used the Turner Tagebücher in forming at least part of their ideological basis.[35] Members Uwe Böhnhardt, Uwe Mundlos, and Beate Zschäpe murdered nine immigrants between 9 September 2000 and 25 April 2007. A copy of the Turner Tagebücher was found on the trio's scorched hard drive after Böhnhardt and Mundlos committed suicide and set fire to their van on 4 November 2011.[36][37] The Turner Tagebücher has been banned in Germany since April 2006.[38]
gollark: ... no, it does not.
gollark: Also, you could use ` ` (one space).
gollark: An empty string is different to a nonexistent variable or whatever.
gollark: ... probably not!
gollark: To be fair, they'll probably complain.

See also

References
  1. Salamon, Julie (October 23, 2000). "Television Review; The Web as Home for Racism and Hate". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
  2. Harkavy, Ward (2000-11-15). "The Nazi on the Bestseller List". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
  3. Shinbaum, Myrna (May 16, 1996), Q & A on The Turner Diaries, Anti-Defamation League, archived from the original on December 1, 2001, retrieved July 20, 2018
  4. "Extremism in America: The Turner Diaries". ADL.org. Anti-Defamation League. 2007. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  5. The New York Times April 26, 1995
  6. Jackson, Camille (2004-10-14). "Turner Diaries, Other Racist Novels Inspire Extremist Violence". Splcenter.org. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  7. Berger 2016, p. 40.
  8. Barkun 2014, p. 228.
  9. Ross, Kaz (March 16, 2019). "How believers in 'white genocide' spread their hate campaign in Australia". Business Standard. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  10. Sutherland, John (May 22, 1997). "Higher Man". London Review of Books. 19 (10). Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  11. "The Turner Diaries - Race Baiting at its Finest". Paul Robinson. 2009-12-12. Retrieved 2010-05-02..
  12. Barkun 2014, p. 226.
  13. Berger 2016, p. 6.
  14. Goehring & Dionisopoulos 2013, p. 369.
  15. Zeskind, Leonard (2009). Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-4299-5933-9.
  16. Sutherland, John (April 3, 2000). "Gospels of hate that slip through the net". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
  17. Whitsel 1998, p. 184.
  18. Cullick 2002, p. 88.
  19. "Jewish group complains over sale of hate books online". CNN. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
  20. "Global News - Latest & Current News - Weather, Sports & Health News". Global News.
  21. Government of Canada, Canada Border Services Agency (14 February 2008). "Memorandum D9-1-15 - Canada Border Services Agency's Policy on the Classification of Hate Propaganda, Sedition and Treason".
  22. Ward, Justin (2018-04-19). "Day of the trope: White nationalist memes thrive on Reddit's r/The_Donald". Southern Poverty Law Centre. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  23. Walton, Frank Vyan (2018-08-12). "Here's How to Win the Civil Rights Social Justice War". AlterNet. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  24. Wilson, Jason (2018-06-15). "Doxxing, assault, death threats: the new dangers facing US journalists covering extremism". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  25. Fassler, Jeremy (2018-06-29). "Night of the Rope: The White Nationalist Celebration of Lynching Journalists". The Daily Banter. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  26. "Weekend Read: When calling yourself a fascist is "edgy"". Southern Poverty Law Centre. Authored by SPLC Editors. 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2018-12-26.CS1 maint: others (link)
  27. Margolin, Emma (2018-03-12). "How a New Wave of Female Candidates Is Training to Fight the Trolls". Politico Magazine. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  28. Tenold, Vegas (2018-07-26). "To Doxx a Racist". The New Republic Magazine. Illustrations by Siung Tjia. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  29. Bosworth, Jr., Charles (1998-03-15). "Illinois Man Sought Start of Race War, Source Says". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc. p. A1.
  30. Collins, James (28 April 1997). "OKLAHOMA CITY: THE WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE" – via content.time.com.
  31. Miller, Phil (2000-02-23). "Black Man's Killer Said: 'We're Starting the Turner Diaries Early'". The Scotsman. The Scotsman Publications. p. 3.
  32. BBC Panoroma (2000-06-30). "The Nailbomber".
  33. Caywood, Thomas (2006-02-08). "Infamous neo-Nazi literature found in killer's room". The Boston Herald. Boston Herald Inc. p. 5.
  34. "Life term for Rigby revenge attacker". 11 September 2015 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  35. "Der NSU war nur die Spitze des rechten Terror-Netzwerks - VICE". Vice (in German). Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  36. Rundfunk, Ernst Eisenbichler, Bayerischer (2013-11-04). "4. November 2011: Eine Neonazi-Terrorzelle fliegt auf | BR.de" (in German). Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  37. Rundfunk, Christoph Arnowski, Bayerischer (2016-02-04). "259. Verhandlungstag, 4.2.2016: Die Turner-Tagebücher und der NSU | BR.de" [The Turner Diaries and the NSU (National Socialist Underground)] (in German). Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  38. Friedrichson, Gisela (2014-11-06). "NSU-Prozess: Die Rolle der "Combat-18"-Zelle" [The role of the "Combat-18" cell]. Spiegel Online (in German). Munich. Retrieved 2018-12-26.

Bibliography
Barkun, Michael (2014). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. University of Northern Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-1111-2.
Berger, J.M. (2016). "The Turner Legacy: The Storied Origins and Enduring Impact of White Nationalism's Deadly Bible". Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies. 7 (8). doi:10.19165/2016.1.11.
Cullick, Jonathan S. (2002). "The Literary Offenses of a Neo-Nazi: Narrative Voice in "The Turner Diaries"". Studies in Popular Culture. 24 (3): 87–99. ISSN 0888-5753.
Goehring, Charles; Dionisopoulos, George N. (2013). "Identification by Antithesis: The Turner Diaries as Constitutive Rhetoric". Southern Communication Journal. 78 (5): 369–386. doi:10.1080/1041794X.2013.823456. ISSN 1041-794X.
Whitsel, Brad (1998). "The Turner Diaries and Cosmotheism: William Pierce's Theology". Nova Religio. 1 (2): 183–197. doi:10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.183. ISSN 1092-6690.
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