Peter Brimelow (born October 13, 1947) is a British-born American writer. He is the founder of the websiteVDARE, an anti-immigration site associated with white supremacy,^[1] white nationalism,^[2][3] and thealt-right.^[4]

Brimelow has worked as a writer and editor atNational Review and as a columnist for Dow Jones’/MarketWatch.^[5] He founded theCenter for American Unity in 1999 and served as its first president. Brimelow describes himself as apaleoconservative,^[6] and he has been called a leader within thealt-right movement.^[7] In January 2021, a judge dismissed a lawsuit Brimelow brought againstThe New York Times, ruling that that theTimes had not defamed him by calling him a "white nationalist".^[8]

Brimelow was born in 1947 inWarrington,Lancashire, England, the son of Bessie (née Knox) and Frank Sanderson Brimelow, a transport executive.^[9] Brimelow and his twin brother, John, studied at theUniversity of Sussex (BA, 1970) and atStanford University (MBA, 1972).^{[9][better source needed]}

Brimelow is an American citizen.^[10]

After working as asecurities analyst, Brimelow moved toToronto to work as a business writer and editor at theFinancial Post andMaclean's. From 1978 to 1980, he was an aide to US SenatorOrrin Hatch. In 1980, Brimelow moved to New York and worked forBarron's andFortune.^{[citation needed]}

In 1990, Brimelow and Leslie Spencer'sForbes article, "The Litigation Scandal", won aGerald Loeb Award in the "Magazine" category.^[11]

Brimelow opposes both illegal and legal immigration.^[12][13] He has referred to Spanish-speaking immigrants as "completely dysfunctional",^[12] and stated that California used to be a "paradise" but was "rapidly turning into Hispanic slum".^[12] Brimelow has been described as awhite nationalist^[14] and awhite supremacist.^[15] In 2020, Brimelow suedThe New York Times for labeling him a "white nationalist".^[10] In 2022, Brimelow called for a reversal ofBrown v. Board of Education, a 1954 Supreme Court decision that directed an end to segregated schools.^[16]

Brimelow has appeared as a guest onThe Political Cesspool, a "pro-white"talk radio show. Following the2008 presidential election, Brimelow advocated that to win, theRepublican Party should focus on "white votes".^{[17][18][19][better source needed]}

As of 2010 he was a senior contributing editor atAlternative Right, a website edited byRichard Spencer, according to the SPLC.^[20] He has spoken at events hosted by theNational Policy Institute run by Spencer, according to the SPLC.^[21]

Brimelow appeared on a panel discussingmulticulturalism during the 2012Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2012), and gave a talk titled "The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American Identity". In the face of condemnation fromMSNBC andPFTAW,Al Cardenas of theAmerican Conservative Union denied knowing Brimelow.^[12]

Larry Auster, also a prominent immigration restrictionist, was a fierce critic of Brimelow's approach to the issue. For example, Auster criticized Brimelow's promotion of the views ofantisemitic conspiracy theorist^[22][23]Kevin MacDonald in the following manner: "The views ofAlex Linder are not fundamentally different from those of Kevin MacDonald, who is published by Peter Brimelow andRichard Spencer. The only real difference between Linder and MacDonald is that Linder explicitly touts his goal of removing all Jews from the earth, while in MacDonald's case the same goal is implicit."^[24]

According toAnti-Immigration in the United States, Brimelow believes that whites built American culture and should defend it against non-whites who would try to change it.^[2]

External videos
Booknotes interview with Brimelow onAlien Nation, June 11, 1995,C-SPAN

Brimelow's bookAlien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster criticizesU.S. immigration policy after 1965.^[25]

A review inForeign Affairs acknowledged that the book raised a number of persuasive objections to contemporary American immigration policies, but criticized Brimelow for "defining American identity in racial as opposed to cultural terms", and for the "extreme character" of his proposals.^[25]

The Southern Poverty Law Center describedAlien Nation as an "infamous anti-immigrant book", and pointed toCenter for Immigration Studies executive directorMark Krikorian's positive review of the book as evidence that Brimelow's organization had close ties to white nationalists.^{[26][better source needed]}

External videos
Presentation by Brimelow onThe Worm in the Apple, February 24, 2003,C-SPAN

The Worm in the Apple discusses public education and teachers' unions, considering unions as "highly destructive".^[27]David Gordon summarizes Brimelow's view in his review of the book inThe Mises Review: "to attempt so far-reaching a goal as universal high school education is foolish."^[28]John O'Sullivan^[29] praised the book. For theHoover Institution journalEducation Next, public policy consultant George Mitchell wrote: "Brimelow... demonstrates howcollective bargaining for teachers has produced labor agreements that stifle innovation and risk taking. He makes it clear that the dramatic rise in influence enjoyed by the teacher unions has coincided with stagnant and unacceptable levels of student performance." However, in the same journal article, education consultant Julia E. Koppich took a more critical angle: "Brimelow uses a variety of linguistic devices to drive home his points. But his over-the-top language soon grates on the nerves... His argument is not that teacher unions are destroying American education, but that they labor long and hard to preserve the status quo... But this book contains so little about education-virtually nothing about classrooms, schools, or districts-even that point gets lost." Koppich called the book "an anti-public schoolpolemic".^[30]

In a 2011 article inMaclean's,John M. Geddes stated that Brimelow's bookThe Patriot Game: National Dreams and Political Realities "offered a bracingly of-the-moment conservative critique of Canada," and said that it was instrumental in shaping the thought process of Canadian Prime MinisterStephen Harper.^[31]

VDARE was an Americanfar-right^[32] website promotingopposition toimmigration to the United States.^[15] It is associated withwhite supremacy,^[33][1][34]white nationalism,^[35][36][37] and thealt-right.^[38]Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia describes VDARE as "one of the most prolific anti-immigration media outlets in the United States" and states that it is "broadly concerned with race issues in the United States".^[39] Brimelow established VDARE in 1999 and served as its editor.^[39]

TheSouthern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has described Brimelow's websiteVDARE as ahate group,^{[40][41][better source needed]} that was "once a relatively mainstream anti-immigration page", but by 2003 became "a meeting place for many on the radical right". The SPLC also criticized VDARE for publishing articles by white nationalistsJared Taylor andSam Francis.^[6] It has been called "white nationalist" by theRocky Mountain News.^[42] It has also been described as white supremacist.^[1] VDARE has also been described by theAnti-Defamation League as a racist anti-immigrant group.^[43][44]

In 2024, Brimelow suspended the operations of VDARE.^[45]

In August 2025, New York attorney generalLetitia James suedVDARE alleging that $1.4 million had been taken from VDARE by Brimelow and his wife. They are alleged to have used the funds to buy a castle-like house, theSamuel Taylor Suit Cottage also known as "Berkeley Castle" inWest Virginia.^[46][45]

Brimelow's first wife was Margaret Alice "Maggy" Laws, a native ofNewfoundland, Canada who worked for theManhattan Institute for Policy Research when they met in New York. They were married until her death on February 6, 2004, from cancer.^[47][48] Brimelow had two children with Laws, Alexander and Hannah Claire. As of June 2021, Hannah is a blogger for political commentatorTim Pool's websiteTimcast.^[49]

In 2007, Brimelow married Lydia Sullivan. While Lydia claims to have started working for VDARE in 2014, tax documents associated with the VDARE Foundation listed her as a business partner as early as 2008. As of 2020, she was the president of the VDARE Foundation and the publisher of VDARE.com.^[50]

• The Wall Street Gurus: How You Can Profit from Investment Newsletters (1st ed.). New York City:Random House. 1986.ISBN 0-394-54202-9.LCCN 85028153.
• The Patriot Game: National Dreams and Political Realities.Toronto, Ontario, Canada:Key Porter Books. 1986.ISBN 1-55013-001-3.LCCN 86228891.
  • Also published asThe Patriot Game: Canada and the Canadian Question Revisited.Stanford, CA:Hoover Institution Press. 1987.ISBN 0-8179-8681-2.LCCN 87017145.
• The Enemies of Freedom. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform. 1990.LCCN 92219523.
• Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster (1st ed.). New York, NY: Random House. 1995.ISBN 0-679-43058-X.LCCN 94012478.
  • Also see: letter to the editor, responding to critics –Brimelow, Peter (June 27, 1995)."Immigration and Bad Social Policies Don't Mix; A White Ethnic Core".The New York Times. RetrievedFebruary 12, 2012.
• The Worm in the Apple: How the Teacher Unions Are Destroying American Education. New York, NY:HarperCollins. 2003.ISBN 0-06-009661-6.LCCN 2002027586.

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