Ibram X. Kendi offers a global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it.
The goal is an admirable one ... But the book Kendi has written reads less like an effort to understand why these conspiracy theorists are so effective and more like a murder board in a detective’s office ... Often he simply lets two facts sit side by side, rubbing provocatively against each other ... For all the material Kendi brings together, his conclusion reduces it to the size of a small cabal meeting in a back room ... The worst thing about Kendi’s theorizing is that it allows him to avoid seriously contending with why conspiracy theories appeal to so many people.
Wide-ranging ... An ambitious book ... As a series of capsule histories of 21st-century right-wing movements, the book is serviceable ... He generally writes in a lucid, ambling style that is engaging enough page by page ... Kendi has long had a tendency to distill big ideas into simple categories ... Sometimes sacrifices clarity for the sake of metaphor and clunky wordplay ... A book that is simultaneously too pessimistic, about the inexorable appeal of right-wing rhetoric, and too naïve, about the effort required to beat them back.
Meticulously researched ... An ambitious book that covers a lot of ground, intellectual and geographical ... Because of its vast remit, it is inevitable that aspects of the book feel shallow ... While Kendi does discuss the troll farms and social networks that have helped the chain of ideas encircle the globe, there could have been a deeper interrogation of technology’s role in all this ... Ultimately, though, Kendi has produced a worthwhile and accessible book that not only helps us to interpret current events but also offers a modicum of hope.
