Reviews

White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism by The Zetkin Collective, Andreas Malm

lindsirae's review

4.0

The first half of the book contains too many chapters devoted to the minutiae of contemporary European politics without tying them to larger geopolitical trends or meaning, but the theory and history portions of this work are fantastic. I learned a lot of new vocabulary with which to discuss capital accumulation and I found the chapter explaining fascism as a historical force particularly insightful. Overall, very worth the read.

breadandmushrooms's review

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

obliviously's review against another edition

• does anyone know that scene from the 2007 nancy drew movie w emma roberts where they go into a clothes store & the sales associate says "you have some nice pieces, they're just not really working together"

the_vegan_bookworm's review

challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

Part 2 was really interesting and revealed a lot of connections I hadn't anticipated between historical facista and the rise of fossil fuels and car culture. This being said, Part 1 really dragged for me as it went through countless far right patties and their climate denialism approaches. While it was interesting to see the way they were all saying the same messages and the intricate links that were obviously in place, I would have rather had Part 1 and Part 2 swapped to build on momentum.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Antisemitism

daytonm's review against another edition

4.0

You can tell it is written by a collective because the organizational structure can feel a bit haphazard. But wow, this was a fascinating and horrifying tour through the far right past and present and its relation to ecological destruction. Definitely recommend. We will be discussing in Storytelling Animals book club – more info here! https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

charley0796's review

dark informative slow-paced

3.0

Contrary to other reviews, I actually found the second half of this book more interesting than the first, with its focus on history and politics.

I found this a tough read, and honestly cannot say what I really learned from reading it (other than some bits about how racist and fat right Sweden is, amongst other countries!). I have a post graduate level qualification and a bachelor’s degree at a high ranking university and I struggled to understand what it was saying. I would say this is not for beginners and is for those with a masters degree. I also feel the book assumed prior knowledge in politics, which I have not much understanding of! 

I really wanted to rate this highly, as it was a book I have been looking forward to reading to learn more about environmental racism, but I just couldn’t enjoy or get into it. So, I will be rating it 3

fscolli93's review

dark informative medium-paced

4.5

kostia_gorobets's review

dark informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

daire_'s review

4.0

This was about half mind-blowingly insightful (exploring the conceptual and philosophical far right links to fossil fuels and resistance to renewable energy, their focus on anti-immigration, the tendency of liberal capitalism to fall back on fascism in times of crisis, extrapolating into the future) but the other half was a bit of a slog (personally I could have done without the lengthy dig into Nazism and Futurism). I extremely recommend it, especially if (like me) you need to learn more about what exactly drives the right/far right, just a heads up that it’s p long and dry.