One well-known white nationalist will find the ideology he grew up with no longer held power over him and all it took was good friends, diversity of thoughts and learning to listen to “the rest of the story.”

Derek Black had the nation’s ear, even at the age of nineteen with the backing of his father, Don Black and his godfather, David Duke, former KKK Imperial Wizard. His world is enlarged and his eyes and heart are opened when he is befriended by a Jewish student, a strong-minded young woman. Is this proof that communication is the key to peace and understanding?

Difficult to read, offensive to some, this is the journey Derek Black took to his own enlightenment that required him to break with his family’s beliefs, they lifelong advocacy.

In a country that claims “all are welcome, all are equal,” Eli Saslow’s in depth narrative, RISING OUT OF HATRED is a raw, unvarnished and revealing saga of one young man’s life, and the soul-searching he faced before taking a giant step into manhood and real humanity.

I was mesmerized, appalled and felt ill to think that such a closed-minded attitude is so easily and blindly adopted. Eli Saslow has done a remarkable job of presenting a fair presentation that comes alive with each word. In a world with so much hatred, Derek Black’s transformation is a beacon of hope for the future, because change only happens one person at a time.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Doubleday!

Publisher: Doubleday (September 18, 2018)
Publication Date: September 18, 2018
Genre: Ideologies & Doctrines | Non-Fiction
Print Length: 304 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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Rising Out of Hatred is the fascinating true story of how a heir to a white nationalist dynasty turned away from hate.

Home schooled by his racist family, Derek Black seemed on a path to hatred. A frequent contributor to a prominent white nationalist website and leader of a radio talk show, Derek believed what he had been taught to believe by his family, friends and co-workers. When he attends a liberal college, he realizes that people that look different from himself are not that different inside.

An inside look at the white nationalist movement along with a possible reason for all the devisiveness in politics and life today. Is it as simple as getting to know your demonized enemy better? We have all met racists who have exceptions for some people of the ostrasized nationality while still being suspicious of the rest of their race. I doubt it is as simple to change viewpoints as Rising Out of Hatred describes for most racists. However, it is a good way to begin a dialogue with the “others” in our world. 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher, Doubleday Books, and NetGalley for an advance copy.

Wow this book was hard to put down. Derek Black is the godson of David Duke and the son of the founder of the white supremacist website Stormfront. As a child, teenager and young adult he was heavily involved in his family’s activities even making a white power kids video game. This is the story of how he found his way to realizing how wrong all these ideologies are. It is a frightening glimpse behind the curtain. We are in a critical time in our country and everyone needs to decide right now what side of history do you want to be on?

Derek Black grew up the son of white nationalists and for a long time was seen as the next face of the movement. He had a radio show and regularly posted on Stormfront, a white nationalist website. When he began attending New College of Florida, a liberal university, he met and became friends with the people he thought were part of what he claimed was "white genocide" - Jewish, Muslim, Hispanic, and African-American people. Getting to know them personally and being questioned regularly by his good friend-turned-girlfriend caused him to begin evaluating and questioning his beliefs. Eventually, he realized the errors in his thinking and disavowed white nationalism. It caused a rift between him and his family members, especially his parents. With the rise of Trump's presidential bid and the rhetoric surrounding it, Derek realized he needed to be more vocal about the erroneous beliefs of white nationalism.

It was a very interesting book that explains some of the beliefs of white nationalists along with a greater understanding of Trump's election and many of his supporters. A relevant read for our current America.

"Rising Out of Hatred" is a fascinating account of how a rising star in the White Nationalist movement slowly moves from hatred to acceptance, from alt-right to a Hillary Clinton fan, and from a narrow focus to inclusion.

For Derek Black, it all began with talking. He simply talked AND listened to others. He heard differing points of view. He accepted the challenges of fact checking. He considered that more than one point of view might be possible. He fell in love and with love came trust. He grew. He changed.

This is a great, well researched look at White Nationalism and open hearts and minds. If you read this book, please do so with the same openness. You might learn to be more accepting, regardless of on which side of the political spectrum you reside.

Thanks to NetGalley, Doubleday, and Eli Saslow for the opportunity to read this most-timely book about racism.

A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist writes about Derek Brown, the son of Don Brown who started Stormfront, the internet community that promoted white nationalism, and the godson of David Duke, a KKK Grand Wizard. Raised by radical parents and home-schooled basically on his own, Derek was groomed to be the face of the white nationalism movement going into the future. He started his own radio show and was involved in politics while still in his teens. When he started college at the New College of Florida, he was suddenly thrust into a very liberal, intelligent, diverse community of people. He hid his past, continuing in secret to broadcast his radio program while starting relationships with Jewish and immigrant people. Once he was "outed," the college community was intensely divided into those who hated him and those who urged a different approach - talking to him and trying to understand his beliefs. Derek's eyes were opened by people who were exceedingly patient with him until he had to make a personal decision that would put him at odds with his entire family.

This book is a beacon of hope in today's increasingly hate-filled society. By sitting down calmly with people from different backgrounds and with different beliefs, we can impact change.

Highly recommended - would be great high school/college required reading.

Rising Out of Hatred reveals the impact people in your life - family, friends, acquaintances - have on your outlook on everything in life. And the impact and influence you have on others. Amazing story that needed to be shared. Hope this book gets the promotion it needs to reach as many as possible.

The subject matter of this book is very interesting, but I thought it went on a bit too long. This could be attributed to two factors. 1) I don't usually read a lot of non-fiction. 2) I had already listened to a podcast with Derek Black, and knew the gist of the story. I could have done without a lot of the regurgitation of long messages directly from Derek's email archives. I did, however, think the part where Trump's rhetoric can be directly attributed to white nationalist theme's to be, while downright scary, worth diving into.

This is the nonfiction story of Derek Black, the son of a famous white nationalist Don Black who runs the Stormfront website and he is also the godson of David Duke. I wasn't sure about reading this at first because I didn't think that I could get past their belief system to give it a fair read but I'm so glad that I did. The way that Derek is raised and his early history is presented in a dispassionate enough manner that I was able to almost gloss over his early beliefs. Black is a very intelligent and thoughtful young man-he goes off to college and his entire belief structure is picked away at a little at a time. How I wish that everyone like this could be made to see the light. How much is he responsible for the current wave of racial hatred that is sweeping our country? Questions like these are raised and there is definitely something to ponder there. I was so grateful to hear about his story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for this ARC in return for my honest review.

There are some excellent reviews out there and I do not think I can do much better. As mentioned in one review I thought was most excellent, empathy is the key here. Instead of slamming, bad-mouthing, denouncing someone you disagree with, why do we never think to talk to them about their beliefs. Perhaps they will want to ask about your beliefs. Perhaps one of you might even change your mind! Aggressive confrontation never works, never solves anything. I love this book just for the message it sends, it IS possible to change!

What an amazing book. Saslow tells the story, as only a journalist can, of Derek's transformation from white nationalist to an advocate for equal rights. The two of them clearly show how the far right has adopted the dangerous language of white nationalism and how Donald Trump used it to become president. This book is terrifying and hopeful at the same time. As Derek says, since he used to be on the inside and is partly responsible for the current climate, he's trying to warn the public. This is one of those books I'll be urging my friends to read.

I got an ARC of this book.

I have some very strong and hard to define feelings about this book. It was a wonderful read and it held my attention. It was well written, that is not even in question. My issues are more moral and personal than critiques of the writing or the content. The author was able to sort of deal with my issues, but my heart and my mind haven't fully come around.

My two big issues were also issues for many of the people in the book too. What do you do when you are faced with someone like Derek Black and what do you do when you realize you did wrong?

What do you do when you encounter someone like Derek Black? He was not outright violent. He did not call for others to be violent. He had horrendously dangerous ideas and saw them as just debates/facts, not as the life altering things they were. He was logical and intelligent, so you couldn't write him off as just dumb or crazy. He didn't shove his views in your face, so if you weren't careful then you could forget that he was HUGE in the white nationalist movement. How do you deal with that? Do you bring him in and try to change him? Do you fight him? Do you push him away? Everyone in the book had different views about this. There were students that brought him close and helped him realize he was wrong through kindness and connection. One of the the people closest to Derek Black actually had doubts about keeping him close because she felt it came from a position of privilege. She was able to because she was a white person. It really gave some complex looks at complex issues. Some of the students were about open revolt that Derek Black was on campus. If Derek Black were actively physically dangerous or calling for violence, then it would be a lot less complicated. However my feelings are still mixed because he was so powerful in the WN movement and you can still hear his words being echoed everywhere you turn.

What do you do when you realize you did wrong? This is where my main issue with the book was. How could I see Derek Black as anything  but a Nazi, someone my friends would cheer for me if I punched in the face? He was clearly a mover and shaker in the WN movement. He helped recruit children to the movement. He was the poster boy for WN. He is the one who gave them their current language. His father is the one who has thousands of them around him at all times due to his website. What about their very real connections to the KKK through the Grand Wizard family member? How could I overlook that? I think what kept me from being able to accept that Derek Black was changing is how vocal he was for WN, but how little he did to stop it when he renounced it. He was called out and told he had to speak out against the words he created and the movement he pretty much lead. Now that Derek Black is doing that, I am a bit more able to accept that he changed. However he still appears to have been more active in support than he is in opposition. It still hurts my heart and brain thinking about all of this.

The author was able to cover these complex emotions and ideas through not only Derek Black's story, but through interviews with Derek's father and Derek's friends. This gave a more fleshed out picture of a very complicated transition. I am still torn and tormented by the thoughts in this book. Every reference to a WN text had me running to check to see if my local library had any. My library has a total of two. The larger of the two being in the history section as it is relevant to history and they other also has many counter argument books shelved next to it. I am sad to say there are even that many books in my library, but not surprised. When I worked in the Women's Center on my pretty liberal college campus, even they had one of the books that Derek Black had read and believed. It was one of the first things that I learned in Intro to Psychology as being bad science and the book was named repeatedly throughout my psychology, sociology, and WGS courses as being inaccurate and just racist. Yet, this book was found and read by someone who used it to promote WN because it sounded legit. It is scary how quickly anything can be taken too far and how hard it is to change when presented with the truth.

This is a book about Derek Black's transition away from the white nationalist ideology he grew up with, after being exposed to people from other backgrounds during his college years.

This is a book about the importance of empathy and civil discourse, which gradually changed the mind of the next "great white hope," son of the creator of Stormfront, godson of David Duke.

At times this was hard to read, because I personally have a lot of trouble talking with people whose views so radically differ from mine. I can get angry of frustrated, or I can be so completely lost for words that I avoid conversation at all. Many people reacted this way to Derek at college, but the few who engaged him in conversation and exposed him to their own beliefs in a more measured way ultimately were able to reach him and change his views. Reading this was a reminder to work on improving my ability to engage in civil conversation rather than to respond emotionally, because I believe that is the only way toward progress.

It is also such a compelling piece of writing that I gobbled it up in little more than a single day.

I had read some of Saslow's interviews on this before. This is more in-depth and while it made me uncomfortable I was curious.

How does the heir apparent to the KKK, Derek Black, godson of David Duke and son of Don Black, suddenly change his name and his back on the entire organization?

Well, it didn't happen overnight. Derek is an intelligent man. Yes, he started a web page for White Children when he was a child, he was indoctrinated into this belief system by his father and his godfather. However he didn't just take their word on white supremacy, he traveled, he studied and he knew more about history than most history majors.

So when he made the choice to attend a liberal arts college in Florida he tried to stay under the radar. And that worked for a time. It was there that he became friends with immigrants, Jews and started questioning what he had been taught.

The college could have ostracized him, kicked him out, made him quit. But the students didn't do that. They invited him to Shabbat. They entered into a discourse that would eventually lead to Black taking back everything he had preached and going off grid.

The White Nationalists were given a prize with Trump. They saw someone who said things they wanted to hear. The only thing they clashed on was Israel. Trump himself is a rabble-rouser and these guys took that as a sign to be more and more violent and confrontational. 

As uncomfortable as most of the book made me, I am better for having read it.

Netgalley/Doubleday September 18, 2018

I am in absolute astonishment, having just turned the last riveting page of <i>Rising Out of Hatred</i> and am eternally grateful to Eli Saslow for sharing Derek Black's story with us. I will go so far as to say that this is one of the most important reads of our time. We are at a crossroads in our nation, and it is terrifying that some of us have been so oblivious to what is going on in our political climate. Sure, I've been actively tuned into all of the political upheaval as of late, I've heard the term: alt-right, and I've cringed at Donald Trump's incendiary comments, but I had no idea of the true extent of it all. I have believed all along that Trump is merely a provocateur, that his comments were simply off the cuff rantings. Little did I know that his rhetoric is based so solidly in White Nationalist convictions. When all of the white supremacists seemed to rise out of nowhere upon Trump's election to office, little did I know that they view him as the one that will bring their agenda to the forefront of our nation's politics. What's most terrifying is that this ideology seems to be gaining momentum at an astonishing rate.

Derek Black's transformation is truly miraculous, having been raised in a family of White Nationalists. The story of his transformation speaks to the power of acceptance and tolerance, and how educated, civil discourse can be a vehicle for positive change. It also speaks to Mr. Black's true character, and how his thirst for knowledge and amenability led him on a journey he would never have expected, and that ultimately led him to the truth. Kudos to the many New College students whose patience and devotion ultimately led to a very positive change in a student with immensely different views.

This book has vastly opened my eyes to a movement that I thought was long gone, and that is quickly regaining steam. Sadly, it will continue to do so if we, as a people, remain ignorant to the storm that is brewing. Thank you, Mr. Black, for your courage to come forward and share your story of transformation with the nation, and to you, Mr. Saslow, for providing an exceptional medium in which to do so.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Doubleday Books for gifting me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

It's decent reportage, one that makes humans out of what I would normally consider monsters, and even helped me drum up a little bit of compassion for someone I would usually desire to see removed from the gene pool. On the other hand, the writing is kind of "young adult". By that I mean that it doesn't delve too deeply, academically, or intellectually into "race relations," manners of privilege, etc. That makes it easily read and accessible to a lot more people, but a slightly mind-numbing "happy ending" kind of read for people who concern themselves with these things regularly.

‘Rising Out Of Hatred’ is the story of one man leaving the white supremist movement. Derek Black was the heir apparent. His parents were long time activists and klan leader David Duke was his godfather. He created a white supremist website for children and had a 5 day a week radio show pushing his beliefs. He was set for a string leadershp position. And then he decided to enroll in New College Of Florida, the most liberal college in the state. Ostensibly he was there because of their program on the history of the middle ages. I can’t help but wonder he went there with the idea that the liberal students he met would reenforce his racist views but just the opposite happened. And of course there was a girl involved. But once Black’s were opened he began to see how his actions were affecting others, something he had never considered during his insular upbringing.

Derek Black’s story is a difficult read and at times the book drags but it is an important lesson for us all.

Powerful. Crushing. Frightening. Inspiring. This is the power of a new book by the Pulitzer prize-winning Washington Post journalist. More than just a treatise on escaping a powerful belief, it is a tale of the rise of white supremacist belief in the very midst of the American experiment with democracy. Following the life of Derek Black, son of the creator of StormFront, an infamous Neo-Nazi website as well as the godson of David Duke, we see the incredible power of this movement. Derek was steeped in hate, in racism, in anti-semitism literally from his birth and groomed to be the next big leader of the movement. However, at his small Florida liberal arts college, Derek is surrounded by a small group of friends, who hate his beliefs, love him anyway, and show him through their lives and their words a way out. Saslow's story also shows us the blatant manner in which the Neo-Nazi movement has infiltrated the common political world of today, as well as mainstream media. Well-written with detailed investigative reporting, this book has a heart as well as a warning.

With the political and racial climate currently in the US, I was very interested in reading this book.

What really stood out to me was that we all start out as a product of our upbringing. It is what happens and what we do with that point of reference once exposed to external forces. Derek Black is entrenched in the world of white supremacy between his father Don Black, a long time white supremacist and founder of the website Stormfront, and David Duke, former grand wizard of the KKK. Duke was Derek's godfather and his heir apparent.

Derek's beliefs started to change while attending college. Even though he continued to participate in radio casts with his father, he did so in secret from those around him. Eventually he was outed. Through a close knit group of friends, they slowly introduced him to the idea that just because a person is of a certain ethnic or religious group, that does not mean they are inferior or "bad." Derek was able to learn from his friends and question his father's beliefs. He grew as his eduction grew eventually studying for his PhD.

The author takes his time developing the story. At times it was slow in reading but not enough to walk away from the book. There are subtleties that were developed so that the reader understood the impact of the situation.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday for a prerelease copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book affirms the following facts about the human condition:
1. Hatred and racism are taught principles. People are not predisposed to hate, but rather are bred to be this way.
2. Just because a person is a bigot, does not mean that they are unintelligent. It is easy to dismiss a bigot by questioning their intelligence or gullibility or pack mentality, but the example of Derek Black shows that some of these individuals are quite intelligent and charismatic.
3. Empathy is important. We are not all going to come face to face with the heir apparent to the white nationalist movement in America, but we are going to face other hateful, intolerant people. Responding to the hate of others with more empathy and less hostility is probably a better tactic.

I found the journey of Derek black to be incredible and improbable. Derek was charismatic, intelligent, articulate, and bigoted. The dichotomy of his personality was unfathomable to me prior to reading this book. His journey from hate to understanding is truly remarkable, and attests that there is the ability to love and understand in all of us.