The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds
 Cover of 2001 edition | |
| Author | Robert S. Griffin |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | William Luther Pierce |
| Publisher | Self-published |
Publication date | October 2000 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 420 |
| ISBN | 0-7596-0933-0 |
| OCLC | 530177967 |
The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds: An Up-Close Portrait of White Nationalist William Pierce is a biography of William Luther Pierce, the leader of the white supremacist group the National Alliance and the author of The Turner Diaries. It was written by Robert S. Griffin, an academic from Vermont, and self published in 2000, after Griffin failed to find a traditional publisher. In writing the book, Griffin interviewed Pierce, traveling with him to attend a neo-Nazi convention in Germany and spending a month at his West Virginia compound.
Based largely on interviews with Pierce, it recounts his early life and ideological influences, as well as his views. It was authorized by Pierce himself, who said he approved of the book. While Griffin claimed that he did not agree with Pierce, the book was widely regarded as too sympathetic to him, and Griffin was later subject to criticism over his racial views. The Southern Poverty Law Center criticized it as effectively an autobiography of Pierce, while other sources variously described it as a "hagiography", "fawning", "admiring", and "offensively obsequious". Despite this, it has been often cited for statements from Pierce, and received some amount of praise.
Contents
[edit]The book is a biography of William Luther Pierce, the leader of the white supremacist group the National Alliance and the author of The Turner Diaries.[1][2] Griffin largely leaves the readers to come to their own conclusions.[3] The book's title comes from an Old Norse poem.
In an introduction, Griffin recounts how he got into contact with Pierce and what led him to be interested in the topic. It recounts Pierce's early life and his ideological influences, among them his interest in the John Birch Society, Revilo P. Oliver, and his eventual contact with George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. The book also includes summaries of both The Turner Diaries and Pierce's other novel, Hunter.[4]
It also discusses the Oklahoma City bombing, which was inspired by The Turner Diaries, and with it Pierce's reaction. His views on World War II, men and women, and Jews and racism are also profiled. Griffin gives a background on authors who inspired Pierce; among them Pierce praises Savitri Devi and her book The Lightning and the Sun.
Pierce, in the book, said of himself that:[3]
"I realize that I have a turn of mind that leads me to exaggerate and oversimplify things for the sake of better understanding, and I know there are dangers in that [...] But I think that tendency in me helps me get to the essence of things."
Background and publication
[edit]Robert S. Griffin was then a tenured education professor at the University of Vermont.[1][2][4] He got both his masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Minnesota in 1967 and 1973.[1][5][6] He had published previous academic works on education, including the book Sports in the Lives of Children and Adolescents.[7][8][9]
Griffin tried to find a traditional author for the book, but was repeatedly rejected.[3] In October 2000,[10] he digitally self-published the book. It was 420 pages long.[3][11] It is an authorized biography.[12] Griffin tried to find a traditional author for the book, but was repeatedly rejected. It was initially self-published through MightyWords.com, sold for $8 a copy; it was at #1 on the bestseller list of that site.[3][4][13] In 2001, it was self-published in print through 1stBooks Library.[4] On his website, he stated of Pierce that "found [him] to be a person of remarkable capability, decency, integrity, courage, and dedication",[1][5] and said in an interview that he found Pierce to be "the most fascinating human being I’ve ever been around my life".[4]
In writing the book, he said that "Pierce cooperated fully and never once asked me to delete or change a thing."[4] He told The Village Voice that he did not agree with Pierce, but merely served as a conduit for his views, saying that "If you want to see what he says, where he comes from, here it is. Do I agree with him? No." He described his approach as "cultural anthropology" and that it was not a biography but a "relatively unfiltered look at Pierce.[1][3][13] He interviewed Pierce for the biography, spending a month with him at his compound in West Virginia, also traveling to Germany with him to attend a neo-Nazi convention.[14][1]
Reception
[edit]The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds was criticized by several commentators as being too sympathetic to Pierce.[15][16][17][18] Sources variously described it as a "hagiography",[17] "fawning",[1][11][18] "admiring",[2] and "offensively obsequious".[16] The Southern Poverty Law Center said it was effectively an autobiography of Pierce, and that it was "clear that Dr. Griffin looked up to [Pierce]".[1][15] They said it was not surprising that Pierce had not asked him to change anything, as "there is very little, if anything, that Pierce would object to in the text [...] Much of Griffin's tome consists of tedious regurgitations of Pierce’s own words"[4] Vox said of the book that it "extensively quotes Pierce spouting unchallenged white supremacist propaganda".[16]
The SPLC stated that it provided "a few interesting details" about Pierce, noting it as "hardly a penetrating or critical study of William Pierce, but it does provide many details that will interest students of American neo-Nazism". They also called it "a dangerous work, in the sense that Griffin’s repeated self-identification as a college professor, along with his completely uncritical presentation of his subject, help to lend an air of legitimacy to the ideas of the late William Luther Pierce".[4] Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said of the book that it was "fine for people who are familiar with hatemongers' elaborate rationalizations but may be a problem for the masses", due to Griffin's lack of criticism of Pierce's ideas. Cooper said it "certainly offered some insight into the mind of Dr. Pierce" but that it was missing "a greater sense of perspective. For someone just walking into this cold, there’s something missing. There’s a lack of critical analysis." Pierce himself praised the book.[3]
Extremism scholar George Michael however described it as an "excellent biography",[19] and The Village Voice called it "readable".[3] The Village Voice said it did "sprinkle in some perspective on Pierce", but that his ideas did get "a lengthy hearing".[3] Despite its sympathy to Pierce, it is widely cited as a source for statements from Pierce, though one analysis said of the work that it "has been widely recognized that Griffin’s biographical work is tinged by the author’s own opinions" on him, and that it "largely accepts Pierce’s ideological self-identification and interpretation of events at face value".[11]
Griffin himself stated that writing the book "changed [his] life forever", that he "came away from my encounter with Pierce far more conscious of race from a white perspective and of myself as a white man and of my European cultural and historical roots."[1] Pierce died in 2002, two years after the book's publication.[4] After the publication of the book, Griffin wrote two further books on white nationalism,[10] and was accused of being a neo-Nazi.[1][2][5][10]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barlow, Daniel (June 14, 2009). "Professor linked to white pride: Civil rights group says Griffin is a neo-Nazi; others disagree". Times Argus. Montpelier. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ a b c d "UVM prof linked to white supremacist groups". Bennington Banner. Associated Press. June 15, 2009. pp. 5A. ISSN 2331-6640. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Harkavy, Ward (November 14, 2000). "The Nazi on the Bestseller List". The Village Voice. New York City. ISSN 0042-6180. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lee, Martin A. (Fall 2002). "Sympathy for the Devil: A Vermont academic writes a fawning biography of America's late neo-Nazi leader". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on February 16, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ a b c Lee, Stephanie (June 16, 2009). "The (Pro)-White Professor". Inside Higher Ed. Washington, D.C. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ "Faculty Bios". Department of Education: University of Vermont. Archived from the original on June 23, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ Smith, Alan L. (June 1999). "Sports in the Lives of Children and Adolescents (Book)". Sport Psychologist. 13 (2): 237. doi:10.1123/tsp.13.2.237. ISSN 0888-4781.
- ^ Cashmore, Ernest (2000). Sports Culture: An A-Z Guide. New York: Routledge. p. 327. ISBN 978-0-415-22335-5.
- ^ Kenny, H. F. (November 1998). "Sports in the lives of children and adolescents: Success on the field and in life". Choice. Vol. 36, no. 3. p. 558. ISSN 0009-4978.
- ^ a b c "University of Vermont Professor Robert S. Griffin Offers Defense of White Nationalism". Southern Poverty Law Center. April 19, 2006. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ a b c Lewis, Jon; Ingram, Haroro (June 1, 2023). Founding Fathers of the Modern American Neo-Nazi Movement: The Impacts and Legacies of Louis Beam, William Luther Pierce, and James Mason (Report). Reports, Projects, and Research. pp. 1–85. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
- ^ Berger, J.M. (2016). "The Turner Legacy: The Storied Origins and Enduring Impact of White Nationalism's Deadly Bible". International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. 7 (8). The Hague: 20. doi:10.19165/2016.1.11.
- ^ a b Rötzer, Florian (November 20, 2000). "Ein amerikanischer Rassist auf der Bestsellerliste" [An American racist on the bestseller list]. heise online (in German). Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ "The Turner Diaries, Other Racist Novels, Inspire Extremist Violence". Southern Poverty Law Center. October 14, 2004. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ a b "Neo-Nazi National Alliance Struggles to Survive Under New Chairman Erich Gliebe". Southern Poverty Law Center. September 20, 2002. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ a b c Romano, Aja (January 28, 2021). "How a dystopian neo-Nazi novel helped fuel decades of white supremacist terrorism". Vox. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ a b Boucher, Geoff; Young, Helen (February 2023). "Digital books and the far right". Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. 37 (1): 140–152. doi:10.1080/10304312.2023.2191905. ISSN 1030-4312.
- ^ a b "William Pierce". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
- ^ Michael, George (October 1, 2003). "The revolutionary model of Dr William L. Pierce". Terrorism and Political Violence. 15 (3): 62–80. doi:10.1080/09546550312331293137. ISSN 0954-6553.