WHITE SUPREMACY, a brief history of hatred

179pp., paperback, First SA Edition, Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg, 2024

ISBN: 9781776194438

First published in the UK in 2024.

Gavin Evans on the rise of of white supremacy around the world. He traces the ideology back to Charles Darwin and Francis Galton’s race-based theories, examines the spread of eugenics and the rise of Nazism and Apartheid, and investigates the 21st-century ‘Great Replacement’ ideas, their spread through alt-right forums, and their influence on young men with access to weapons.

"A meticulous and enlightening march through the history of racial pseudoscience and a deep investigation into how and why it continues to have salience to millions today. If you’re wondering where on earth the bizarre, violent alt-right ideas that spread so effectively by the alt-right came from, this book makes it clear – they were with us all along." Mike Wendling, BBC journalist and author of Day of Reckoning

Gavin Evans was born in London and grew up in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, San Marcos, Texas and Johannesburg, and was involved in the struggle to end apartheid. He has practised as a journalist in South Africa and the UK. His books include Black Brain, White Brain: Is intelligence skin-deep?; Mapreaders & Multitaskers: Men, women, nature, nurture; Skin Deep: Dispelling the science of race, and a memoir, Dancing Shoes is Dead: A tale of fighting men in South Africa. He teaches at Birkbeck College, University of London, and is a member of the Royal Institution's Challenging Pseudoscience Group.