The Extreme Gone Mainstream: A Book Talk with Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - 5:00pm

Cynthia Miller-Idriss

American University

Cohen Hall Room 402

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Professor of Education and Sociology at American University, will discuss her latest book, The Extreme Gone Mainstream: Commercialization and Far Right Youth Culture in Germany, in which she explores 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 poeple 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 youths 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 clothing popular with youth, the new brands desensitize far right consumers to extremist ideas and dehumanize victims.