Ruth Wodak 
The Politics of Fear 
The Shameless Normalization of Far-Right Discourse

Far-right populist politics have arrived in the mainstream. 



We are now witnessing the shameless normalization of a political discourse built around nationalism, xenophobia, racism, sexism, antisemitism and Islamophobia. But what does this change mean? What caused it? And how does far-right populist discourse work? 




The Politics of Fear traces the trajectory of far-right politics from the margins of the political landscape to its very centre. It explores the social and historical mechanisms at play, and expertly ties these to the ‘micro-politics’ of far-right language and discourse. 



From speeches to cartoons to social media posts, Ruth Wodak systematically analyzes the texts and images used by these groups, laying bare the strategies, rhetoric and half-truths the far-right employ. The revised second edition of this best-selling book includes:

• A range of vignettes analyzing specific instances of far-right discourse in detail.


• Expanded discussion of the ‘normalization’ of far-right discourse.


• A new chapter exploring the challenges to liberal democracy.


• An updated glossary of far-right parties and movements.


• More discussion of the impact of social media on the rise of the far-right.

Critical, analytical and impassioned,  The Politics of Fear is essential reading for anyone looking to understand how far-right and populist politics have moved into the mainstream, and what we can do about it. 

Table of Content

Populism and Politics: Transgressing Norms and Taboos

Theories and Definitions: The Politics of Identity

Protecting Borders and the People: The Politics of Exclusion

Language and Identity: The Politics of Nationalism

Antisemitism: The Politics of Denial

Performance and the Media: The Politics of Charisma

Gender and the Body Politic: The Politics of Patriarchy

‘Illiberal Democracy’ and Neo-Authoritarianism: Shameless Normalization of Far-right Populism

Mainstreaming Far-right Populism

Glossary of Far-right Populist Parties

References

Index

About the author

Ruth Wodak is Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies at Lancaster University. Her research interests focus on discourse studies; identity politics; racism, antisemitism and other forms of discrimination; and on ethnographic methods of linguistic field work. She was awarded the Lebenswerk-Preis in 2018, which honors outstanding life work of personalities who are promoting and achieving gender equality.She was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize for Elite Researchers in 1996 and an Honorary Doctorate from University of Örebro in Sweden in 2010. She has held visiting professorships in University of Uppsala, Stanford University, University Minnesota, University of East Anglia, and Georgetown University (Washington, DC). She is a member of the British Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the Academia Europaea.  In 2008, she was awarded the Kerstin Hesselgren Chair of the Swedish Parliament (at University Örebrö).Ruth is co-editor of the SAGE journal Discourse & Society, and of the journals Critical Discourse Studies and Journal of Language and Politics. Recent book publications include: The discourse of politics in action: ‘Politics as Usual’ (2011), Critical Discourse Analysis (4 volumes, 2013), Migration, Identity and Belonging (with G. Delanty and P. Jones, 2011), The Discursive Construction of History: Remembering the German Wehrmacht’s War of Annihilation (with H. Heer, W. Manoschek, and A. Pollak, 2008), The Politics of Exclusion: Debating Migration in Austria (with M. Krzyzanowski, 2009), The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics (with B. Johnstone and P. Kerswill, 2010), Analyzing Fascist Discourse: Fascism in Talk and Text (with J. E. Richardson, 2013), and Rightwing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse (with M. Khosravi Nik and B. Mral, 2013).