Research
Google Scholar profile | J.M. Berger website
J.M. Berger's 2018 book Extremism, a volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, offers a nuanced introduction to extremist movements, explaining what extremism is, how extremist ideologies are constructed, and why extremism can escalate into violence. Reviewers call it "outstanding" and "elegantly written."
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
There and Back Again: How White Nationalist Ephemera Travels Between Online and Offline Spaces
A Paler Shade of White: Identity & In-group Critique in James Mason’s Siege
The Aspen Institute: Out of Many, One: Defining the Opposite of Extremism
The Dangerous Spread of Extremist Manifestos | Discussion on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross
BOOKS BY J.M. BERGER
Extremism (MIT Press, August 2018)
Extremism was named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2019 by Choice Reviews, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries. It is widely assigned as a standard university-level introduction to the topic.
Other books by J.M. Berger:
o ISIS: The State of Terror (Harper-Collins, 2015/2016), with Jessica E. Stern
o Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam (Potomac Books, 2011)
Selected peer-reviewed articles and papers:
o There and Back Again: How White Nationalist Ephemera Travels Between Online and Offline Spaces (The RUSI Journal, 2020), with K. Aryaeinejad, K., & S. Looney
o The Alt-Right Twitter Census (VOX-Pol)
o Extremist Construction of Identity (ICCT – The Hague)
o Deconstruction of Identity Concepts in ISIS Propaganda (ICCT – The Hague)
o The Turner Legacy: The Origins of White Nationalism's 'Bible' (ICCT – The Hague)
o Without Prejudice: What Sovereign Citizens Believe (George Washington University Program on Extremism)
o The ISIS Twitter Census (The Brookings Institution)
o The Enduring Appeal of Awlaqi's "Constants of Jihad" (CTC Sentinel)
o The Metronome of Apocalyptic Time: Social Media as Carrier Wave for Millenarian Contagion (Perspectives on Terrorism)
OTHER PUBLICATIONS OF NOTE:
o Our Consensus Reality Has Shattered (The Atlantic, 2020)
o Who Matters Online: Measuring influence, evaluating content and countering violent extremism in online social networks (ICSR, with Bill Strathearn)
o The Islamic State's diminishing returns on Twitter: How suspensions are limiting the social networks of English-speaking ISIS supporters (GWU Program on Extremism, with Heather Perez)
o Trump Is the Glue That Binds the Far Right (The Atlantic)
o Out of Many, One: Defining the Opposite of Extremism (via The Aspen Institute)
o Omar and Me: My strange relationship with an American terrorist (Foreign Policy)
o PATCON: The FBI’s Secret War Against the ‘Patriot’ Movement,and How Infiltration Tactics Relate to Radicalization (New America Foundation)