This roundtable discusses new approaches to studying the history of 20^th-century rightwing extremism in a transnational perspective. Our title, “Rightwing Extremism across Borders,” refers to both geographic and thematic borders. Geographically, we will consider American rightwing extremists’ connections to Spain, Germany, other Western European countries, and South Africa. Thematically, we will emphasize avenues for researching the intersection of rightwing extremism with the themes of religion, race, gender, and sexuality.

Historiographically, amid the global resurgence of rightwing extremism today, the roundtable speaks to a growing interest in historicizing rightwing extremism and considering the continuities and disjuncture between past and present. This is reflected in the well-attended panel discussion at the AHA’s 2024 annual meeting, “Rethinking the Far Right in American History,” featuring Rachel Maddow. Moreover, this field is increasingly turning to decentering the U.S, and to considering how American extremists have mutually influenced likeminded ideologies, organizations, and violence across the globe. Finally, there is also an increasing push to de-homogenize the study of rightwing extremism, which has tended to focus on prominent White male leaders of organizations, and to consider how individuals of marginalized identities have in fact played meaningful roles in promoting and resisting rightwing politics.

The roundtable will be chaired by Kimberly Phillips-Fein, with brief presentations by Jennifer Mittelstadt, Austin Clements, Elizabeth Barahona, and Michelle Lynn Kahn. Mittelstadt will begin by discussing U.S. rightwing extremists’ grassroots, global efforts to protect “American sovereignty” from alleged “subversion” by leftist and liberal internationalism from 1919 through the 1990s; this exploration encompasses a broad geographic discussion of the League of Nations, United Nations, Spanish Civil War, Allied War effort in World War II, apartheid in South Africa, and the Panama Canal. Clements will build thematically by highlighting religion as a category of analysis, unpacking how rightwing extremism was undergirded by rising fears of “godlessness” among American Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons from the late 19^th century through the early Cold War. Barahona will examine race as a category of analysis, tracing how two unlikely allies—a former KKK member, and an African American Civil Rights activist—collaborated to combat white supremacy in the 1980s and 1990s. Kahn will cross both geographic and thematic borders: she will discuss how American neo-Nazis mutually influenced Western European neo-Nazis from the 1970s through 1990s, alongside the important role that women and gay men played in these transatlantic networks.

Each participant will highlight their use of diverse source bases, including organizational records, media reports, magazines, literature, film, memoirs, religious sermons, propaganda, handwritten letters, and material objects. We will also describe how we incorporate various methodologies into our work, from political and intellectual history to social and cultural history, anti-colonial history, history of everyday life, and history of emotions.

We hope to attract a broad audience, including scholars of the U.S. and Europe, and those interested in transnational/global rightwing extremism. We also hope to attract scholars interested in diverse thematically approaches, particularly regarding race, religion, gender, and sexuality. To promote lively audience discussion, we will leave ample time for Q&A.