New Culture, New Right: Anti-Liberalism in Postmodern Europe Paperback – March 25, 2013

I've read both this book and Tomislav Sunic's book, "Against Democracy and Equality". Although the intentions of both books are the same; to provide the reader with an overview of, and insight into, the European New Right (and in so doing, also gain insight into the nature of the political movements in the United States as well).Unlike another reviewer of this book here, I do not think it necessary to read Sunic's book first. In fact, I would strongly recommend against this, as I found Sunic's book to be almost unreadable. He's an intelligent man, I'm sure, but I found the language in Sunic's "Against Democracy..." to be so needlessly elevated and abstruse as to make reading an exercise in mental torture.O'Meara's book, by comparison, is very readable. To be sure one needs to be a literate person to read this book. But frankly anyone expressing an interest in understanding the New Right is already revealing a degree of intellectual capacity and inquisitiveness that should make the reading of "New Culture, New Right" not only possible, but at times a pleasure.I gave the book only four stars because I am not a promoter of "grade inflation" - whether for students or books. It's an excellent book - and I recommend it without reservation, but I'll reserve five stars for books that are truly exceptional.

This is an important book for understanding at a deeper level what "The Right" or "anti-classical liberalism" is really composed of, in ideas and attitudes. As this is written by an adherent to the new right it makes for a more authentic experience (vs. a study that starts from a place of censure). For this reason the book is good whatever one's political leanings as you will get an ideological flashlight shined on ideas and attitudes perhaps little understood by Americans (the ideas are Eurocentric and different from what's traditionally thought of as the American Right). Should be read in addition with "Against Democracy and Equality", "The Beast Reawakens", "The Enemy", and "Black Hundred". If you care to study the far-Right/anti-Liberalism. If not, this may not interest you. I do not personally adhere to the ideas or attitudes so I can't give more than 3 stars. Some of the ideas and beliefs, especially views on US hegemony and its anti-market/capitalist views, are interesting and make odd bedfellows with traditional "leftist" views.

If you are looking to gain an understanding of GRECE, le Nouvelle Droite and/or the European New Right, then look no further. This book is a fantastic and well-written introduction to a lot of the ideas of other important ENR thinkers like Alain de Benoist, Guillaume Faye and Tomislav Sunic. Reading this first will form a great foundation before diving into the works of other thinkers in the movement.

When I bought this book, lured by some positive reviews, I expected to read a kind of (more or less) neutral presentation of, and introduction into the ideas and movements of the so-called New Right in Europe. I'm a German and the Right, whether new or rather old-fashioned, is on the rise, not only in Germany, but in Europe generally. So I think it's useful to know a bit about their ideological background.Unfortunately, O'Meara is not a historian or a journalist who did some research on this movement, he obviously is part of it and in this book he comes across as a spokesman of the New Right. In short: This book is pure propaganda for the 'identitarian movement', especially in its French variety. And if the author adds some critical remarks towards the end of the book, it's because GRECE (one of the most important and intellectually sophisticated fractions of this extreme right-wing movement) is not extreme, not racist enough. Although O'Meara identifies the USA, and the liberalism and market economy as the worst enemy of European peoples, the upshot of his diatribe is that the very biological and cultural existence of Europe is threatened not by the Yankees, or its administrative deputies in Brussels, but by Third-World immigration. Sure.I'm not in the mood to present the core ideas of this book. They are simply too confused to render them in an intelligible way. Just one remark on the basic idea of 'identity' that lends its name to the whole movement. The whole argumentation hinges on the presumption that there are social entities, polities (usually called 'peoples') whose identity is at stake. This is nonsense, for two main reasons:The author is unable to identify the level of polities that can have an 'identity'. Is it the family? Or the town, a city? Or a province? Or a whole 'Volk' ? One never knows. O'Meara hankers after the good old days of Greece's democracy, when the whole polis (minus women, slaves and foreign residents, of course) could unite on the agora to discuss matters of public interest. If this is the paradigmatic case, then democracy cannot be operational beyond the level of a little town.But the second objection is more important: There simply is no such thing as 'identity' of any (!) polity, be it a town of 10,000 inhabitants, a region or state like Brittany (in France), or a people like The French or The Irish. At any social level, 'identity' is but a convenient fiction invented and forwarded by certain agents and parties to further their ends. Every society at any level is a multi-layered and ever-shifting fabric of multiple 'identities'. Even a family, the very paradigm for the 'bonds of blood', so dearly cherished by the New (and Old) Right, is an entity made up of many identities, which come to the fore when interests clash: Husband vs wife, child vs parents, son vs daughter... Many many people died at the hands of those with whom they are considered to share an identity!Therefore the basic idea of IDENTITY as it is expounded in this book is invalid when stripped of its grandiose rhetoric.In sum: If you want to read a propaganda treatise written by a supporter and follower (or even member) of the New Right in Europe, this book is for you. It's extremely well written, and a good introduction into this strange and dangerous intellectual bubble – if you keep in mind that it is anything but unbiased, to say the least.If you're looking for an unbiased account of this movement and its intellectual background, look elsewhere. Unfortunately, I can't recommend any other title (in English).