Cynthia Miller-Idriss’s Hate in the Homeland, includes a focused overview of recruitment approaches (pp. 111-128), and our description is informed by Christian Picciolini’s Breaking Hate and Michael Kimmel’s Healing from Hate; recruitment is theme that runs through both books.

For sources and discussion concerning various forms of online recruitment, see White Nationalism Online.

The role of music in recruitment is discussed in detail in Kimmel’s Healing From Hate (especially pp. 155-161). SPLC, Hate Music is an overview as of 2020.

The increasing role of MMA is documented in Miller-Idriss’s Hate in the Homeland (ch. 4); we also consulted Bryan Schatz, The Terrifying Rise of Alt-Right Fight Clubs and Tess Owen, A White Supremacist Is Organizing Fight Clubs Across the US. Owen’s article  describes how “Active Clubs,” white nationalist-sponsored MMA clubs, are being promoted on social media. The leaked confidential communications of a major white nationalist group specify fitness criteria for membership and explicitly promote MMA.

These same leaked conversations repeatedly discuss posting flyers, banner drops, and personal contact as primary recruitment tools that members should employ in fulfilling their active missions.

Kurt Braddock’s Weaponized Words (pp. 74-80) analyzes the functions of narratives in white nationalism. J.M. Berger describes the impact of The Turner Diaries in, Alt History: How a Self-Published, Racist Novel Changed White Nationalism and Inspired Decades of Violence.

“MMA is the perfect incubator for the far right. It helps recruit new youth to the movement from adjacent subcultures.”

• Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Hate in the Homeland, 100

Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was devoted to The Turner Diaries. He had excerpts with him when he blew up the Murrah Federal Building in 1995, using a bomb modeled on one described in the novel.

Updated, October 2021