Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook details the emergence of anti-fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, and offers an analysis of contemporary anti-fascist movements, particularly antifa in the United States and Europe. Bray argues in his book that militant anti-fascism is a reasonable and legitimate political tradition, and describes his book as "an unabashedly partisan call to arms that aims to equip a new generation of anti-fascists with the history and theory necessary to defeat the resurgent far-right". Historical examples referred to in the book include the 43 Group, Rock Against Racism, the Red Warriors, and the Autonomen who popularized black bloc tactics.^[1][2][3] It also details key events in the history of anti-fascist movements, such as the Battle of Cable Street.^[4]

In addition to describing the history of anti-fascist movements, the book dedicates a chapter to "Five Historical Lessons for Anti-Fascists".^[5][1] It discusses the subject of antifa as it relates to deplatforming and freedom of speech.^[6][7][1] Interviews that Bray conducted with antifa activists are included in the book.^[8][9][10] Bray conducted 61 such interviews across 17 different countries.^[5][4] Bray uses the definition of fascism provided by Robert Paxton.^[3][11] He defines antifa as "illiberal politics of social revolutionism applied to fighting the Far Right, not only literal fascists" and as a "pan-left radical politics uniting communists, socialists, anarchists and various different radical leftists together for the shared purpose of combating the far right."^[11][12][13]

The San Francisco Chronicle praised the book's writing, calling Bray's analysis "methodical and informative" and his arguments "incisive and cohesive".^[5][14]

Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post commented that "the book's most enlightening contribution is on the history of anti-fascist efforts over the past century, but its most relevant for today is its justification for stifling speech and clobbering white supremacists".^[3]

In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Luca Provenzano said that the book was "written from a commendable place of engagement and provides a serviceable genealogy for militant anti-fascism in the present", but was also critical of the book, saying that a "closer, more critical look at modern antifa's inception in the 1960s and '70s reveals some of the pitfalls of militant organizing, and a truly credible analysis of anti-fascist protest tactics would need to pay much closer attention to this period."^[15]

Fred Shaw, writing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, called the book "pointed with concise analysis provided by an insider’s perspective", but also said it was "not a page-turner".^[11]

In Brazil, Bray's book featured in what Bray described as "a little bit of a controversy" on Twitter in 2021, when a member of the self-described "Anti-Fascism Police Movement" tweeted a photo of himself holding the book, to which the author replied that if he was really anti-fascist he should quit his job.^[10]