Strange People on the Hill

A gripping story that reveals what happened to a small American town when an influential white nationalist group relocated its headquarters there, illustrating how radical changes in American politics impact our psyches and divide our communities
 
When the white nationalist group VDARE used dark money to purchase a historic castle overlooking Berkeley Springs in West Virginia, America’s “cold civil war” spilled into this scenic tourist town.
 
From behind the imposing stone walls of their castle, VDARE’s Peter and Lydia Brimelow spread propaganda focused on the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, sowing discord in the once-peaceful town below. In an attempt to restore civility, a group of neighbors banded together to oppose VDARE’s presence in Berkeley Springs.
 
Strange People on the Hill urgently demonstrates how extreme reactionary ideology and the national politics that embody it disrupt the lives of everyday Americans while highlighting the intimate relationship between violent, racist radicalism and what now passes for mainstream conservatism.
 
Through extensive on-the-ground reporting, renowned researcher and investigative reporter Michael Edison Hayden shows how the politicized culture wars manifest in deeply personal dramas and conflicts in a moving narrative about how the people of Berkeley Springs are bravely standing up against hate and division and forging a community built on inclusivity, respect, and neighborliness.

• “Strange People on the Hill chronicles an America in flux, as a small town is thrown into chaos by the arrival of a notorious white nationalist family. Michael Edison Hayden has written an admirably candid and remarkably intimate account of the toll that extremism exacts on ordinary people—not least on the author himself.”
  J.M. Berger, author of Extremism
• “Michael Edison Hayden has written a harrowing account of how extremist forces can infiltrate communities—and how new networks of solidarity and defense of the truth can emerge to resist them. A timely and engagingly written account by an expert on extremism and hate groups.”
  Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and author of Strongmen
• “Michael Hayden is one of the leading reporters covering far-right extremism in America, and he’s got the scars to prove it. Now, in Strange People on the Hill, he’s written a gripping thriller about a white supremacist takeover of a small town—a battle over a castle, and the heart of America itself.”
  Will Sommer, author of Trust the Plan