Joey Oliver, American History Z: Gen Z’s Journey to the Far Right, Arktos Media, Ltd., 2026, 224 pages, $22.95 paperback, $4.99 ebook
American History Z, with a foreword by Jared Taylor, just broke Arktos Media’s record for first-day sales and is shaping up to become a bestseller. It seeks to answer a question older loyalists of the political establishment ask almost in desperation: What could possibly be turning young men so powerfully toward “right-wing radicalism?” The generation in question, popularly termed “Gen Z” or “the Zoomers,” is commonly defined as Americans born between 1996 and 2010. Joey Oliver, born 1998, is therefore a fairly senior member of the cohort whose political education he describes in his first work of nonfiction after an earlier novel called The Grey Lion.
This generation can just about remember George W. Bush’s America: already riddled with the corrupting influence of liberalism, but outwardly still a continuation of the America of their fathers. There were still plenty of what we politely call “nice neighborhoods” with “good schools” — places where whites were free to be ourselves and raise our children. But those children are Generation Z, now coming of age or already young adults, and they see clearly that the world they glimpsed early in life is gone. They cannot, therefore, simply approach life on the same terms as their parents, but will have to fight for things their parents took for granted.
…Mr. Oliver notes that, as with antiracism, feminism was initially supposed to be a reconciliation, but has become open resentment and seeks retribution:
Women now had it all — education, careers, contraception, no-fault divorce, affirmative action — you name it. But instead of contentment and success, we got the most unhappy female population in recorded history. We were doing everything we could for women, but it wasn’t enough. We tried to give them what they asked for, and they still hated us. So, after the endless efforts and concessions, lots of us young men gave up on trying to appease any of these people [meaning both women and non-whites]. We don’t have an obligation to be nice to people who hate us.
Good clear overview of the awakening of Gen Z. Well-worth reading. ABN
