In today’s bonus episode, we’re digging into the controversy over Italy’s new neo-fascist prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the far-right Tolkien-obsessed cultural movement that helped spawn her. From the Hobbit camps in the muddy fields of Italy to the violent football hooligans stomping the streets of Leeds, neo-fascist culture found fertile soil across Europe in the 1970s and 80s and helped radicalize a generation of young extremists.

We’ll also explain just what we mean by “fascist” and “neo-fascist”—terms you’ll be hearing on this podcast with great frequency in the coming weeks.

To order transcripts, suggest episode topics, or learn more about our work, visit TheAmericanId.com. You can also write us at [email protected].

If you’d like to support our work, you can find us on Patreon or Venmo @AmericanId.

Notes

Atlas Obscura. “How ‘Hobbit Camps Rebirthed Italian Fascism.’” John Last, 3 October 2017.

Fair Observer. “Of Hobbits and Tigers: The Unlikely Heroes of Italy’s Radical Right.” Tobias Hof, 23 Dec. 2020.

New York Times. “Hobbits and the Hard Right: How Fantasy Inspires Italy’s Potential New Leader.” Jason Horowitz, 21 Sept. 2022.

Atlantic. “The Return of Fascism in Italy.” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, 23 Sept. 2022.

Further Reading

Strong Men: Mussolini to the Present. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, W. W. Norton, 2020.

The Nature of Fascism. Roger Griffin, Routledge, 1993.

Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism: The Transformation of Extremism. Ryan Shaffer, Palgrave, 2017.

In today’s episode, we go back in time, when the hippies discovered The Lord of the Rings, making J.R.R. Tolkien an icon for the counter-culture, from Joni Mitchell to Dungeons and Dragons. During the 1980s, the evangelical right-wing made Tolkien an avatar for evil in the Satanic Panic. And, in the second half of the show, we look at the first culture war waged over Tolkien by a bunch of obscure conservative intellectuals who instead declared Tolkien the avatar of their imagined white Christian homeland.

One correction from today’s episode: Queen Elizabeth II of the UK was buried on Talk Like a Pirate Day.

To order transcripts, suggest episode topics, or learn more about our work, visit TheAmericanId.com. You can also write us at [email protected].

If you’d like to support us, you can find us on Patreon @AmericanId.

Notes

GQ, “Why Were Rock Stars So into The Lord of the Rings?” Gabriella Paiella, 24 August 2022.

Further Reading

 Craig Franson, “The Perils of the Tolkien Course: Reading the Readings,” Approaches to Teaching J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Other Works. MLA, 2015, pp. 36-43.

Nicole Hemmer, Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.

Sarah A. Hughes, American Tabloid Media and the Satanic Panic, 1970-2000. Springer Nature, 2021.

Nigel Walmsley, “Tolkien and the ‘60s,” J. R. R. Tolkien: This Far Land, edited by Robert Giddings, Vision, 1983, pp. 73-86.

Today’s special, bonus episode interrupts our “Eye of Sauron” series to dig into the week’s Tolkien-centered, headline news. We’ll talk about the struggle unfolding between media-titan Amazon and the far-right, troll armies review-bombing its new Rings of Power series. We’ll also reiterate some points we made in episode one about the mass-media ecosystem that online fascists use to harness the global advertising power of cinematic blockbusters. Then, we’ll dig into two fresh examples of this ecosystem at work: a supercharging tweet thread by billionaire, mega-troll Elon Musk and a wildly irresponsible, feature article from CNN.

To order transcripts, suggest episode topics, or learn more about our work, visit TheAmericanId.com (coming soon!). You can also write us at [email protected].

If you’d like to support us, you can find us on Patreon @AmericanId.

Notes

News Coverage of the Review Bombing

Hollywood Reporter, “Is the ‘Rings of Power’ Getting Review Bombed? Amazon Suspends Ratings.” James Hibberd, 2 Sept. 2022.

Hollywood Reporter, “A Racist Backlash to ‘Rings of Power’ Puts Tolkien’s Legacy into Focus.” Richard Newby, 2 Sept. 2022.

Huffington Post, “Elon Musk Complains Men Aren’t ‘Smart and Nice’ Enough in ‘The Rings of Power.” Cole Delbyck, 6 Sept. 2022.

Guardian. “Lord of the Rings Stars Speak out against Racist ‘threats, harassment and abuse.’” 8 Sept. 2022.

Coverage We Analyze

CNN. “When ‘Wokeness’ Comes to Middle-earth: Why Some Say Diverse Casting Ruins the New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Series.” John Blake, 5 Sept. 2022.

Wonkette. “Actual Racist Trolls Real Mad about Fictional Black Elves, Hobbits.” Stephen Robinson, 6 Sept. 2022.

Further Reading

The Conversation. “The Rings of Power Is Suffering a Racist Backlash for Casting Actors of Colour—but Tolkien’s Work Has Always Attracted White Supremacists.” Helen Young, 7 Sept. 2022.

Today’s episode kicks off our series on the American right’s obsession with Lord of the Rings. Craig tells Dani all about Amazon’s brand new, billion-dollar Rings of Power series, and we discuss the mobs of far-right trolls that have flooded the new production with waves of racist and misogynistic hate. We also take a step back to think through the larger, social ecosystem that these online fascists have learned to harness in their decades-long, anti-democratic culture war. In the second half of the show, we go back in time to the release of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, which came out in the aftermath of 9/11. Craig recalls his experience of the films’ release as George W. Bush rallied the nation for a retributive war in the Middle East, and we discuss the revolutionary potential that neo-fascist figures like Steve Bannon have found in fantasy fandom.

To order transcripts, suggest episode topics, or learn more about our work, visit TheAmericanId.com (coming soon!). You can also write us at [email protected].

If you’d like to support us, you can find us on Patreon @AmericanId.

Notes

Vanity Fair, “Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Series Rises: Inside The Rings of Power.” Anthony Breznican and Joanna Robinson, 10 Feb. 2022.

Guardian, “‘The history of fantasy is racialized’: Lord of the Rings series sparks debate over race.” Sam Thielman, 20 Feb. 2022.

The Conversation, “Lord of the Rings: debunking the backlash against non-white actors in Amazon’s new adaptation.” Dimitri Fimi and Mariana Rios Maldonado. 25 Feb. 2022.

Time Magazine, “Feeding on Fantasy.” Lev Grossman, 2 Dec. 2002.

Further Reading

Race and Popular Fantasy Literature: Habits of Whiteness. Helen Young, Routledge Press, 2018.

The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. Kristin Thomas, University of California Press, 2007.

Introducing the American Id podcast. Hosted by Dani Holtz and Craig Franson, this podcast plumbs the depths of the American  psyche, using history and pop-culture to treat the political maladies of our moment. Coming September 1st!