Tamir Bar On

Biography

Bar-On completed his BA and MA in political science at York University (Toronto), while he earned his Ph.D. from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec). The title of his dissertation was "The Ambiguities of the Intellectual European New Right, 1968-1999." His external thesis advisor was British historian of fascism Roger Griffin. Bar-On was formerly a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at DePaul University (Chicago), as well as a professor of political science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo (Ontario), University of Windsor, and George Brown College (Toronto).

Academic Work

Andreas Umland calls Bar-On's Where Have All The Fascists Gone? (Ashgate, 2007) "the most comprehensive scholarly investigation into the ENR in the English language yet." He argues it is "destined to become a standard reference and perhaps even the most influential English-language study on the subject for years to come." Griffin penned the "Foreword" to Bar-On's Where Have All The Fascists Gone?, which argues that the ENR is a "modern revitalization movement" with intellectual roots in the neo-fascist milieu. In 2014, French New Right leader Alain de Benoist attacked Bar-On's body of works on the French New Right in the Journal for the Study of Radicalism, while Bar-On responded in the same journal by highlighting affinities between the French New Right and neo-fascist thought. The editor of Journal for the Study of Radicalism was sympathetic to de Benoist's claims that the French New Right was divorced from fascism and previously criticized Bar-On's Where Have All The Fascists Gone? as polemical in its claims of linking the French New Right to fascism.

Where Have All the Fascists Gone?

Where Have All The Fascists Gone? examines how fascists in the post-World War II period often jettisoned open violence and waved the "post-fascist" and "anti-fascist" banners. For example, the ND meets many though not all of Stanley Payne's exhaustive criteria of fascist movements or regimes of the inter-war era. Yet, the leading ND intellectual, Alain de Benoist, attempted to revive the tradition of the inter-war Conservative Revolution (CR), which legitimised Fascist and Nazi regimes. The ND worldview is an "ambiguous synthesis of revolutionary Right or Conservative Revolution (CR) and New Left (NL) ideals," which Bar-On summarizes in the equation: "CR + NL = nouvelle droite." The Israeli historian of fascism Ze'ev Sternhell argued fascism was first born in France as a union of ultra-nationalism + Marxist revisionism. Similarly, Bar-On posits that the most sophisticated revision of postwar-neofascism is the product of French intellectuals such as Alain de Benoist, who fused New Left concerns of the 1968 generation with revolutionary Right-wing longings for a homogeneous identity. The historian John Hellman relied on Bar-On to argue that Alain de Benoist continues the "non-conformist" tradition of inter-war French thinker Alexandre Marc.

Rethinking the French New Right

Bar-On's second book on the French New Right Rethinking the French New Right offers four interpretations of the French New Right: (1) a quasi-fascist movement; (2) a challenge to the traditional right-left dichotomy; (3) an alternative modernist movement, which rejects liberal and socialist narratives of modernity; and (4) a variant of political religion.

The World through Soccer: The Cultural Impact of a Global Sport

The world’s most popular sport, soccer is a global and cultural phenomenon. The television audience for the 2010 World Cup included nearly half of the world’s population, with viewers in nearly every country. As a reflection of soccer’s significance, the sport impacts countless aspects of the world’s culture, from politics and religion to business and the arts.

Each chapter features representative players, providing specific examples of how soccer comments on and informs our lives. These players—selected from a wide array of eras, countries, and backgrounds—include Diego Maradona, Pelé, Hugo Sánchez, Cha Bum-Kun, Roger Milla, José Luis Chilavert, Zinedine Zidane, Paolo Maldini, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi, Neymar, Clint Dempsey, Mia Hamm, and many others.

Employing a unique lens to view a variety of topics, The World through Soccer reveals the sport’s profound cultural impact. Combining philosophical, popular, and academic insights about our world, this book is aimed at both soccer fans and academics, offering readers a new perspective into a sport that affects millions.

Beyond Soccer: International Relations and Politics as Seen through the Beautiful Game

As the world’s most popular game, soccer is unique in its ability to reflect and impact culture, society, and politics. Beyond Soccer: International Relations and Politics as Seen through the Beautiful Game provides students with a new and innovative way to learn about political science and international relations. It uses soccer players, officials, fans, and organizations in order to teach political science concepts—such as geopolitics, discourses, and sovereignty—and IR theories—including realism, liberalism, and feminism. This text also incorporates three common soccer discourses to highlight the possibilities of soccer as a tool for unity and social change; as a defender of established power; and as simultaneously a mechanism used by established power and an engine for social resistance.

With exercises, discussion questions, and keywords included in each chapter, Beyond Soccer is a worthwhile and accessible educational tool. Primarily written for undergraduate students of all levels, this book will be valuable in political science, international relations, cultural studies, and sociology courses.

Books

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Chapters in edited volumes

Contemporary Right-Wing Strategies and Practices in Europe (Transcript-Verlag, 2017), pp. 117-124.