A Hundred Little Hitlers: The Death Of A Black Man, The Trial Of A White Racist, And The Rise Of The Neo-Nazi Movement In America

On November 12, 1988, a group of Portland, Oregon, skinheads known as East Side White Pride encountered three Ethiopians in a street fight, resulting in the brutal death of Mulugeta Seraw.

For award-winning journalist Elinor Langer, the Seraw case is the launchpad for a thorough investigation of the Nazi-inspired racist movement in the United States. She vividly reconstructs the world of the skinheads: their origins in the punk scene, their basement shrines to Nazi power, their moments of glory on Oprah and Geraldo. She examines the long-standing radical groups that encouraged the movement, tracking the progress of such powerful figures as White Aryan Resistance leader Tom Metzger through key bastions of the Far Right. In gripping detail, she follows civil-rights lawyer Morris Dees's efforts to prove Metzger responsible for the Portland killing-a sensational campaign to curb the growth of neo-Nazism.
Compelling, disturbing, and important, A Hundred Little Hitlers is both an epic account of racism and justice and a close examination of social forces that loom ever more dangerously today.
Elinor Langer has written for The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, and The Nation, among other publications. She lives in Portland and is currently on the faculty of the Mountain Writers Pacific MFA Program.
Finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for Research Nonfiction
Finalist for the Ron Ridenhour Book Prize from the Nation Institute
A Book of the Month Club Finalist for Best Nonfiction of 2003
A Book Sense 76 Pick

On Saturday, November 12, 1988, a group of Portland, Oregon, skinheads known as East Side White Pride met for an afternoon of beer and racist banter. That night, they handed out white supremacist newspapers, swung by a party, and got thrown out of a friend's apartment. A short while later, three of the skinheads encountered three Ethiopians; a street fight broke out and Kenneth Mieske brutally beat Mulugeta Seraw with a bat. In the early morning hours, Seraw died.

Drawing on more than ten years of interviews and research, award-winning journalist Elinor Langer takes the Seraw case as the occasion for a thorough exploration of the Nazi-inspired racialist movement in the United States. She vividly reconstructs the world of the skinheads, both in Portland and nationally: their origins in the punk scene, their basement shrines to Nazi power, their moments of glory on Oprah and Geraldo. She delves into the long-standing radical groups with which the skinheads became allied, tracking the progress of such powerful figures as California White Aryan Resistance leader Tom Metzger through the stations of the far right, from the Birch Society to the Wallace campaign, from Christian Identity to David Duke's Klan. In gripping detail, she follows ambitious Alabama civil rights lawyer Morris Dees's campaign to prove Tom Metzger responsible for the Portland killing—a sensational but ultimately empty effort to curb the growth of neo-Nazism.

Compelling, disturbing, and important, A Hundred Little Hitlers is at once an epic story of American racism and justice, and a taut investigation into powerful social forces that loom ever more dangerous
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"An important, controversial, and well-written account of a watershed event in recent Portland history."—The Oregonian (Portland)

"Haunting . . . A book that looks deep below the surface to reveal confounding information from many sides . . . A riveting work that avoids easy answers in its examination of the forces of hate, the aftermath of violence, and the imposition of justice."—Seattle Post Intelligencer

"In November 1988, a skinhead in Portland, Oregon, clubbed to death an Ethiopian immigrant named Mulugeta Seraw. The incident illuminated the rise of clusters of vicious, disaffected, working-class white men who thrived on hatred and random violence perpetrated against Jews, Hispanics, immigrants, and people of color. Elinor Langer, the biographer of Josephine Herbst, delves not only into the background of the bat-wielding Kenneth Mieske and his accomplices but also into the California-based White Aryan Resistance movement led by Tom Metzger and his son, John. Langer managed to obtain interviews and often the confidence of many of the members of Portland's East Side White Pride group and the Metzger clan . . . A Hundred Little Hitlers delves into their backgrounds and upbringing."—Karla Jay, The New York Times Book Review

"Langer has a vivid story to tell, and she tells it vividly . . . deftly [drawing] a cast of characters."—The Washington Post Book World

"Remarkable . . . The work of a cool intelligence, one that neutralizes the element of sensationalism through a rigorous suspicion of our desire to see evil as simple . . . With its nuanced handling of a story that lends itself to screeds and hysteria, A Hundred Little Hitlers is a belated antidote to the symbiotic relationship between media exploitation and racist thuggery."—Newsday

"[An] intimate, up-close look at the pasty face of evil . . . The book then moves from [detailed and personal accounts] to examine the entire history of American white supremacism. In sharp sketches of David Duke, U.S. Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, and Gregory Withrow of the Aryan Youth Movement, Langer consistently finds the zone where human interest and political issues intersect."—Joy Press, The Village Voice

"An extraordinary book, written with passion, grace, and wisdom. The murder at its center is a reflection not just of racism in the United States, but of something much more widespread. Langer has taken one act of violence, looked at it carefully and courageously, and illuminated a whole moral universe."—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost

"Langer is one of our most eloquent and astute social critics. Telling this troubling story of murder and racism in an American town, she compels us to think beyond that, to wonder about the future of justice in our country."—Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"Brilliant and provocative, a book that will deeply trouble readers who sense the current anomie and absence of ideas that characterizes politics in America . . . A Hundred Little Hitlers is a complicated [and] subtle work, laden with insight into individuals, group dynamics, and societal trends. I found myself taking stock of the world around me while reading it."—The New York Sun

"Langer writes beautifully, compellingly, and insightfully about an ugly slice of American life. Though defending civil liberties required me to deal directly with some American Nazis and their fellow racialists, I feel that I learned far more about them and understand them far better after reading [this] book than ever previously. Langer tells the story of a murder they committed in Oregon so well that I literally could not put down her book."—Aryeh Neier, President of the Open Society Institute

"Langer brings the investigative skill of a journalist, the literary touch of a novelist, and the sensitivity of a historian to her latest work. A Hundred Little Hitlers shines the light of public scrutiny into the dark corner of a disturbing American subculture. The Mulugeta Seraw story is a troubling but important episode that reminds us all that ideas and words have consequences. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of the American neo-