INFILTRATING, interviewing and researching a whole range of groups such as religious fundamentalists, conspiracy theorists and white supremacists, Julia Ebner’s journey through the often hidden world of “fringe” politics is in many respects useful and informative.

A somewhat provocative work, it provides much food for thought. Consider, for example, how most socialist groups seek to attract, recruit and involve people. With some honourable exceptions, most leftist literature is dull, worthy and ideologically dense and few groups are able even to maintain a website that is in any way attractive.

Organisationally, the culture of leftist groups all too often revolves around endless meetings, interminable debates and childishly sectarian point scoring.

Contrast this with the social lives of some of the extremist groups that Ebner chooses to analyse. Their use of social media is lively and innovative and most of the groups thrive on regular interactions between members.

They are often far less hidebound by rules and regulations, something which Ebner highlights in her work on various Islamist groups. Likewise, relationships between organisations are  surprisingly fluid and productive.

The ability of conspiracy groups to network and utilise the most up-to-date and influential forms of technology fuels anti-establishment narratives on the internet. They have been much more colonised by a motley assortment of misogynistic, racist and anti-semitic cranks than by the more substantive and credible voices of the revolutionary left .

Ebner convincingly demonstrates how many of the organisations she investigates have an incredibly rich social life that promotes distinctive forms of identity and belonging. Increasingly, international neonazi networks promote healthy, drug-free living, the virtues of sport, an original sense of fashion and well-produced music in a vibrant counterculture revolving around clubs, social centres and gyms.

Not all of the groups Ebner discusses are quite as potent. Associations that promote traditional female roles come across as faintly ridiculous and more the fantasies of lonely, bitter and socially inept networks of men than groups that are going to change the world.

The much-touted and hipster-friendly Generation Identity UK emerges as fairly clumsy, clueless and factional and it’s no shock that it has disappeared from the political scene since this book was written.

Where the book does fall down is in its assumption that the conventional liberal narrative around “extremism”  is the best and only way of understanding its origins and growth. Related to this central shortcoming is that Ebner completely fails to provide any social, political and economic context, something essential to understanding not just why these groups might exist but also why they have been able to attain some degree of popularity.
 
Given that a fair percentage of the text explores religious groups, there is no reference at all to the fact that imperialism has, from socialist Afghanistan to present-day Syria, promoted Islamism for decades.

Nor is there any acknowledgement that it is the destruction and collapse of the once-powerful secular left in much of the Muslim world that has enabled Islamist groups to position themselves as the true revolutionaries, on the side on those most affected by an ongoing world economic crisis.

On a similar note, although the alt-right might like to see themselves as marginalised underdogs, bravely fighting a guerrilla war against the tides of political correctness, multiracialism and “cultural Marxism,” many of its adherents are very much at the heart of the ruling class, with all the wealth, power and influence that this brings.

We desperately need to create a viable, informed and militant anti-racist and anti-fascist culture. Some of Ebner’s suggestions might well have a useful role to play in this, but her generally pro- establishment perspective means that the answers she ultimately gives are limited, to say the least .

Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists is published by Bloomsbury, £16.99.