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The corollary to that is 'not me.' That's the idea, 'Oh, it's a bunch of crazy racists over there. You know, 'this is America and it can't happen here.' We get this over and over again. One is what you just named, 'American exceptionalism,' the 'not us' idea. I think of two contextual blockages that prevent us from grappling with our past, and the present that is informed by it. Can you explain how the belief that 'it can't happen here' is historically wrong? In fact, you make the argument that 'it' has already happened here. You gave your book the title, 'It Can Happen Here.' You are, of course, playing off Sinclair Lewis' classic novel, 'It Can't Happen Here.' Like Lewis, you are combating the illusion of American exceptionalism, the idea that freedom, democracy and progress toward equality are almost like laws of nature. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Hinton is here to tell us that kind of passivity and apathy is all too likely to create the conditions for historic catastrophe. Most Americans undoubtedly prefer to think of the United States as immune to the forces of history, and above the various forms of political violence and societal collapse that have affected every populated continent on the planet at one time or another. The echoes of historical genocide are impossible to miss in contemporary American politics. Written with literary style rather than in dry academic prose, it makes for fascinating, albeit deeply disturbing, reading.Īlarming but never alarmist, Hinton provides a chilling introduction to genocide studies through a chronicle of his travails during the Trump years. One of the book's strengths is its accessibility. With 'It Can Happen Here,' Hinton brings his knowledge and experience to bear on a dynamic history of the Trump administration - taking his readers inside his classroom, to white power rallies and to his own testimony at the Chea trial. White supremacist organizations and armed militias are mobilized for political action, the Republican Party has declared war on multiracial democracy and right-wing voters have become increasingly radical and hostile, falling into the personality cult of Donald Trump and the apocalyptic cult of QAnon.Īs historian Timothy Snyder, philosopher Jason Stanley and former Republican insider Mike Lofgren have also warned, the U.S. With sober analysis and in assiduous detail, Hinton explores the ways the United States is 'simmering at a low boil,' and evinces every risk indicator for widespread mass atrocity crimes.

#Synergy salon in washington d.c. trial

He testified as an expert witness, at the trial of Nuon Chea, who was prime minister of Cambodia during the genocidal tyranny of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

He is the author of 12 books on the subject and directs the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University. Hinton is one of the world's leading authorities on genocide and atrocity crimes. Even the title of Alexander Laban Hinton's new book provides a chilling summary of the current danger facing this nation: ' It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the U.S.