The more power today’s radical right-wing nationalists gain, the more likely their destructive politics will become normal. We shouldn’t, for example, treat it as normal when the man in charge of one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals casually threatens that “a whole civilisation will die tonight.” We shouldn’t accept that history’s first trillionaire is allowed to spread racist conspiracy theories on an unimaginable scale. And we should be alarmed that, here in the UK, a party tipped to lead a future government is trying to ride to power on the back of this international movement. In fact, we shouldn’t just be alarmed by these developments: we should stop them and urgently repair the damage already done. But how? And what exactly is that damage? This bold, clarifying intervention from Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor offers some answers. “End times fascism” is their term for a convergence of interests that can broadly be understood as a response to the climate crisis. Faced with a world under unprecedented strain from environmental shocks and an unequal, resource-hungry economic system, today’s reactionaries are effectively saying: bring it on. “The most powerful people in the world are preparing for the end of the world, an end they themselves are frenetically accelerating,” Klein and Taylor write, describing a loose alliance of three main factions rooted in US political and business elites. First are the religious fanatics who see each new disaster as a welcome sign that we are entering the end of days, but find common ground with secular demagogues who promise a glorious, prosperous future built on the ruins of our present. Think, for instance, of the mirage of a “New Gaza,” a property developers’ fever dream that the Trump administration – heavily influenced by Christian Zionists – claims will rise from the wreckage of Israel’s US-backed genocide. Next are the new tech barons, who preach that only the AI “arms race,” as Klein and Taylor put it, can save humanity – even as its demand for water and electricity scorches the planet – while they themselves dream of sitting out societal breakdown in remote, fortified enclaves. Last come the political entrepreneurs who turn visions of disaster into votes by promising to turn their nations into bunkered garrison states. Migration draws most of the attention, but you can also see this logic at work in an increasingly aggressive global scramble for natural resources: “supersized prepping at the level of the nation-state,” in Klein and Taylor’s words. This is nothing less than a revival of fascism, the authors argue – but only if we understand “fascism” as something broader and more persistent than the uniformed mass movements that once brought Europe to the brink of destruction. In their definition, it is a recurring tendency among elites that emerges when capitalism no longer works the way they want it to, and they feel their positions are threatened. “Fascism,” write the authors, who draw on a range of theorists including Walter Benjamin and WEB Du Bois, “is capitalism with bared teeth.” There have been endless academic disputes over whether such a broad definition of fascism is useful. Personally, I think we shouldn’t get too hung up on terminology – the important thing is to write in a way that makes people alive to the problems around them and leaves them feeling empowered to respond. The authors succeed on both counts: Klein has spent almost three decades outlining the connections between unrestrained capitalism and violent, anti-democratic tendencies, while Taylor, a Canadian-American film-maker, writer and activist, is a veteran of movements for social justice. They set out how our economic system, “built on limitless growth, and on limitless wealth for the winners,” has collided with the reality that life on this planet is becoming hHarder to sustain. As a psychological balm, reactionaries offer “bursts of sadistic satisfaction summoned by footage of immigrants in supermax prisons, or soldiers marching through the streets” that only lead to demands for even more extreme measures. At the same time, the right is prone to splits and overreach, making it vulnerable to challenge by progressives whose ultimate goal must be to dismantle the concentration of wealth and power that got us into this mess in the first place. Klein and Taylor draw particular inspiration from Zohran Mamdani, whose successful run for the New York mayoralty showed it was possible to build a winning coalition by focusing on people’s material concerns – and by celebrating difference rather than trying to deny or apologise for it. They also point to other, creative forms of resistance in the US and elsewhere as the seeds of a new politics “rooted in an expansive, open-armed sense of neighbourliness” that can counter the right’s dystopian visions of the future. The way Venetians challenged Jeff Bezos’s attempt to use their city as a backdrop for his grotesque display of wealth disguised as a wedding, for instance. Or how Minnesotans looked out for one another as their state was bombarded with ICE raids. For the authors, the leftwing, diasporic Jewish idea of doikayt, or “hereness” – fighting for justice and equality wherever you may live – is a guiding principle, but only one of a multiplicity of cultural and political traditions that can be drawn on. Here, the account falters a little. End Times Fascism has due regard for the global context, but this is largely a book about the US. That’s not a problem in itself: the US is still (just about) the global hegemonic power. But it does raise questions about where the best lessons can be learned. Is the rest of the world expected to take its cue from American progressives? Or is there more we could discover, say, in parts of the world where reactionary, authoritarian politics has prevailed for longer – and where people might have developed longer-term strategies? It’s not Klein and Taylor’s job to answer these questions comprehensively, though. Their valuable contribution is to map out the frightening new territory in which we find ourselves, and point to an escape. Daniel Trilling is the author of If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable (Picador). End Times Fascism And the Fight for the Living World by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor is published by Allen Lane (£25). To support the Guardian order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. This article was amended on 14 September 2026. An earlier version said the US has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. In fact it has the second largest, after Russia.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of frequently asked questions based on the review of End Times Fascism by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
Beginner Questions
What is End Times Fascism about
It is a book by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor that argues the climate crisis and the rise of authoritarianism are deeply connected It warns that unless we act the chaos of climate change could be used as an excuse to strip away our freedoms
Who are Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
Naomi Klein is a famous journalist and author known for books like The Shock Doctrine and No Logo Astra Taylor is a writer documentary filmmaker and activist Both are wellknown voices on the political left
What does End Times Fascism actually mean
It is a term the authors use to describe a specific danger a future where governments use the fear and disasters caused by climate change to justify taking total control ending democracy and hurting vulnerable people
Why is the review titled the fightback starts here
Because the book is not just a warning The review argues that the book also offers a plan for how people can organize and fight back against this dark future It is a call to action
Is this book only about climate change
No While climate change is the starting point the book is really about how political power works It connects environmental issues to racism inequality and the future of democracy
Intermediate Questions
What is the main argument of the book
The main argument is that we are facing a dual crisis The same forces that are causing climate change are also making governments more authoritarian The authors say we cannot solve one crisis without solving the other
What is disaster capitalism and how does it relate to this book
Disaster capitalism is a term Naomi Klein coined It describes how governments and corporations use disasters to push through unpopular policies that make the rich richer The book argues that climate disasters could be used the same way to install fascism
Does the book say we are already living in a fascist state
No The authors argue we are not there yet but we are on a dangerous path They call it end times because the window to stop this future is closing fast
