White Supremacy

White Supremacy begins with the anatomy of the murder of 10 black people in Buffalo New York in 2022. The killer, 18-year old Payton Gendron, says he was driven by 'Great Replacement' - the conspiracy theory that a Jewish-led elite is replacing white people with black and brown people. This, and a spate of similar hate crimes, begs the question: what are the origins of such behaviour? Gavin Evans, author of Skin Deep, traces the historical roots of white supremacy. He begins in the 19th century with Charles Darwin and his cousin Francis Galton's race-based theories, through the spread of eugenics ideas throughout the UK, Europe and the United States, their Holocaust-prompted decline after World War 2, their revival in different guise through the promotion of race science from the late 20th century and the hatching of 'Great Replacement' conspiratorial ideas in the 21st century - and their expression via alt-right forums to the minds of troubled young men with access to assault rifles. White Supremacy breaks new ground in showing the links between mainstream 'Replacement Theory' - advanced by, for example, Tucker Carlson - and the terrorist version cited by far-right killers. It also traces the thread between these ideas and the race science promoted both by the far right and by establishment figures Steven Pinker, Andrew Sullivan and others. And it looks at what these ideas have in common with those promoted by, for example, the founder of eugenics.