Kathleen Belew

Kathleen Belew (born November 11, 1981) is an American tenured associate professor of history at Northwestern University, and an international authority on the white power movement.[1] She is the author of Bring the War Home (2019), co-edited A Field Guide to White Supremacy (2021) with Ramón A. Gutiérrez, and contributed essays to The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment (2022) and the New York Times bestseller Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Lies and Legends about Our Past (2023). Her forthcoming book, to be published by Random House, is titled Home at the End of the World. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, CNN.com, and Dissent, and was a CNN contributor.[2][3][4]

Kathleen Belew
Belew in 2019
Born (1981-11-11) November 11, 1981
Occupation(s)Historian, professor, writer
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
InstitutionsNorthwestern University
Websitewww.kathleenbelew.com

Academic career

In 2005, Belew graduated with a bachelor's degree (B.A.) in the Comparative History of Ideas from University of Washington, where she was named Dean's Medalist in the Humanities. She obtained a master's degree (M.Phil.) in 2008,[5] and then a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in 2011, both in American Studies from Yale University.[6][7] She was a professor of U.S. History at the University of Chicago, where she received tenure in 2021, until leaving for Northwestern University in 2022.[5] Her research received the support of several organizations, such as the Chauncey and Marion Deering McCormick Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Jacob K. Javits Foundation.[8] She held postdoctoral fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University, Rutgers University, and Stanford University. Some of Belew's most popular courses include The American Apocalypse, History of the Present, The American Vigilante, and Histories of Violence. Her research and teaching focuses on the themes of history of the present, American conservatism, race, gender, violence, and the meaning of war, as well as racism, the white power movement, and militarism in the 21st-century United States.[5]

Belew spent ten years of research to write her first book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Her research has been featured in several documentaries, such as Homegrown Hate: The War Among Us by ABC News and Documenting Hate: New American Nazis by PBS's Frontline, and she has appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Anderson Cooper 360°, Frontline, and NPR's Fresh Air and All Things Considered, among others. Between 2011 and 2019, there were 16 high-profile attacks linked to white nationalism around the world; 175 people were killed in these attacks.[9] She commented: "Too many people still think of these attacks as single events, rather than interconnected actions carried out by domestic terrorists. We spend too much ink dividing them into anti-immigrant, racist, anti-Muslim or antisemitic attacks. True, they are these things. But they are also connected with one another through a broader white power ideology."[9][10]

In September 2019, Belew was a witness at a congressional hearing on confronting white nationalism.[11] In her witness statement, Belew described what she terms "the white power movement" as a "threat to our democracy", said that it was "transnational", and "connected neo-Nazis, Klansmen, skinheads, radical tax protestors, militia members, and others."[12] She advocated forming something like the 2005 Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a step towards a solution to the problem.[12] Congressman Jim Jordan and other members of the Republican Party criticized Belew after she argued with the conservative witness Candace Owens.[11][13]

Works

Books
  • Belew, Kathleen (2018). Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Harvard: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674237698. OCLC 1059238336.
  • Belew, Kathleen; Gutiérrez, Ramón A., eds. (2021). A Field Guide to White Supremacy. Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520382527.
  • Belew, Kathleen (2022). "Militant Whiteness in the Age of Trump". In Zelizer, Julian E. (ed.). The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 83–102. ISBN 9780691228945.
  • Belew, Kathleen (2023). "Insurrection". In Kruse, Kevin M.; Zelizer, Julian E. (eds.). Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 9781541601406.

Op-eds

References
  1. Muñoz Martinez, Monica (April 19, 2019). "Kathleen Belew on the Rise of 'White Power'". Public Books. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  2. "Kathleen Belew | History". The University of Chicago. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  3. Belew, Kathleen (August 4, 2019). "The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  4. Belew, Kathleen (March 17, 2019). "The Christchurch Massacre and the White Power Movement". Dissent. Archived from the original on June 20, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  5. "Kathleen Belew – History – The University of Chicago". History.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on July 24, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  6. Mengist, Nathanael E (April 19, 2018). "Kathleen Belew ('05) historicizes white power in the NYT! – Comparative History of Ideas". University of Washington. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  7. "Kathleen Belew". Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. 2019. Archived from the original on September 11, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  8. "Kathleen Belew: Department of History". Northwestern University. 2022. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  9. Beckett, Lois; Wilson, Jason (August 4, 2019). "'White power ideology': why El Paso is part of a growing global threat". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 4, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  10. Belew, Kathleen (August 4, 2019). "The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 13, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  11. Knowles, Hannah (September 20, 2019). "Candace Owens clashes with fellow witness at congressional hearing on white supremacy". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 6, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  12. Belew, Kathleen (September 20, 2019). "Statement U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Reform" (PDF). United States House of Representatives. pp. 2, 8, 10. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 27, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  13. "Candace Owens answeres Kathleen Belew". C-SPAN. September 20, 2019. Archived from the original on August 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2023 – via YouTube.

Further reading
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