Chain of Ideas by Ibram X. Kendi

A revelatory account of the racist conspiracy theory that pervades global politics – from the National Book Award winner and number-one-bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi

A revelatory account of the racist conspiracy theory that now pervades global politics – from the prize-winning author of the million-copy bestseller How To Be an Antiracist

Throughout the world, authoritarian movements are radically reshaping our politics and our lives. At the heart of them all lies ‘great replacement theory’, which insists that peoples of colour, migrants and minorities are being deliberately empowered to displace white majorities.

In Chain of Ideas, Ibram X. Kendi shows how this conspiracy theory has mutated from the extremist fringe into a global ideology, embraced by leaders as varied as Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orban, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, Nigel Farage, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. He traces its historic roots in slavery, segregation, colonialism and Nazism, and shows how these age-old prejudices have been dressed in new language for a digital age.

But this is not a book about extremists on the margins. From Anders Breivik’s massacre to the chants of the Charlottesville marchers, from Brexit slogans to the Christchurch shooting, Kendi shows how these ideas have crossed borders, inspired terror and are now re-shaping parties of government. Chain of Ideas is a penetrating history of how reactionary ideas have been repackaged as common sense, and how they shape the globe today.

About the Author: Ibram X. Kendi is one of the world’s leading antiracist scholars. He is Professor of History and the inaugural director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Studies. His many books include Stamped from the Beginning- The Definitive History of Racist Ideas, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and How To Be an Antiracist, which was a number one New York Times bestseller and a Sunday Times bestseller. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Genius Grant, and in 2020 Time named Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

19 Mar 2026
 

Chain of Ideas: Great Replacement Theory and the Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. Kendi ISBN 9781847929372