 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | William Gayley Simpson |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | White supremacy |
| Published |
|
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 758 |
| ISBN | 0-937944-01-7 1980 edition |
| OCLC | 6224140 |
| 909.09821082 | |
| LC Class | CB245 .S54 |
| Preceded by | Toward The Rising Sun |
Which Way Western Man? is aWhite supremacist book byWilliam Gayley Simpson. Simpson, a former left-wingChristian activist turned White supremacist, claims that there is an organizedconspiracy by "World Jewry" against the "Western Man", which is leading to the destruction ofWestern civilization. The book isantisemitic andanti-Black, with Simpson describing himself as a racist with pride; Simpson advocates deporting all Black people and Jews, but additionally blames a supposed internal weakness of the West for this "plight". The book, in addition to its usage ofantisemitic conspiracy theories, isanti-Christian in orientation, claiming Christianity,communism,capitalism, anddemocracy are all Jewish plots. Simpson quotes a variety of texts, including established conspiratorial works likeThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The book was first self-published by Simpson in 1978 under the imprint Yeoman Press. Later editions were published by theneo-Nazi group theNational Alliance and by the antisemitic publisherNoontide Press; the book was also promoted by the National Alliance in their catalogue. Following Simpson's death, the National Alliance's National Vanguard Books published a second, revised edition in 2003, with additional content, in accordance with his wishes.
The book sold poorly, probably in large part due to its immense length; it is over 700 pages long in its original printing, and over 1000 in the revised edition. Despite this, it has influenced many of the most prominent White supremacist and neo-Nazi leaders, includingJohn Tyndall,William Luther Pierce,Ben Klassen, andDavid Duke. The book was credited by neo-Nazi leaderRobert Jay Mathews, the leader of the neo-Nazi terror groupThe Order, as one of his key influences. The name of the book has also been used as anInternet meme related to making choices betweentraditionalism andmodernity.
William Gayley Simpson was an American White supremacist.[1] He had previously been aleft-wing labor activist andChristian, known for hisFranciscanism. He then abandoned this and shifted towards aNietzschean ideology, rejecting theuniversalism andegalitarianism of Christianity and many of its tenets as incompatible with the West. He later became a White supremacist.[2][3][4]
Based on his racist and his Nietzschean ideas, he began to writeWhich Way Western Man? in the 1970s.[5][6][7] Simpson also became a member ofWilliam Luther Pierce'sneo-Nazi organization theNational Alliance.[8]
Which Way Western Man? was first published by Yeoman Press (a self-publishing outlet for Simpson)[9] inCooperstown, New York. The first edition is 758 pages long.[10] William Luther Pierce read it and was impressed, and the book's first print run was soon after distributed by the National Alliance (NA).[11] It was reissued by the NA inWashington, D.C., in 1980 with identical pagination.Willis Carto's antisemitic publisherNoontide Press issued a separate edition in 1986.[12][13]
Pierce advertised the book in the National Alliance's catalogue, listing it alongsideThe Might of the West andMein Kampf as books "every responsible, racially conscious White person must read".[14] The book was reissued again by the NA in 1989.[4] The book was one of only four that were directly sponsored by Pierce, alongside Pierce's own two novels and a science fiction novel,Serpent's Walk.[15]
Following Simpson's death, a second, revised edition was published by National Vanguard Books, the publishing house of the National Alliance, inHillsboro, West Virginia, in 2003. This edition is 1070 pages long and contains additional material.[16][17][18] According to Pierce, this was done to fulfill a promise he had made to Simpson before he died that he would reprint the book with an extensive list of changes.[11] The edition's copyright page notes that "the publication of this revised edition ofWhich Way Western Man? fulfills a promise that William Pierce made to William Gayley Simpson, shortly before Simpson’s death in 1991. This edition includes all of Mr. Simpson’s final updates, additions and corrections."[17]
A quote in the dedication in the original edition (not included in the revised edition) is from the fascist writerFrancis Parker Yockey, who writes that the spirit of heroism is superior to material forces and the worst enemy is inner decadence.[4] In a foreword, Simpson addresses his own ideological history evolution and history as a Christian activist to his ideology then, acknowledging that this is quite different from where he started.[19][20]
Simpson argues that the current West is declining and socially decaying, which it will continue to do unless something is done. The culprit for most of the problems with the current West, Simpson alleges, areJews, whom he considers "Enemy No. 1".[21][22] Jews, Simpson claims, think the "Earth was made for them to rule, andgentiles to be their servants and slaves, their milk cows".[22][23] He writes that a "hard core within world Jewry", namely theRothschilds, collaborating with theRockefellers, who, he claims, are also secretly Jewish, decided to take control of first Europe, and then the world.[1] Christianity, he writes, was fabricated by the Jews, as weredemocracy,communism andcapitalism.[23] Black people are portrayed as a tool used by the Jews to destroy White civilization.[23]
In the book, Simpson criticizesChristianity as fundamentally at odds with "Western man", leading to the destruction and the spiritual ruin ofcivilization.[19][24] Simpson refers to Christianity as "an alien, Oriental, Jewish infection".[4] He criticizes Christianity for placing too much emphasis on the weak and sick rather than the noble and strong, which he argues has weakened Western civilization.[4] In place of Christianity, he promotes an "evolutionary" approach to spirituality,[19] and calls for a new, European religion.[4] Despite his antipathy towards Christianity, he at times speaks positively ofJesus, but rather as amystic figure.[4]
He advocates a biological belief in race,[4] describing himself with pride as a racist in the book, writing that: "Race consciousness, and discrimination on the basis of race, are absolutely essential to any race's survival, and to any nation's survival. [...] Unless we recover our race consciousness, and maintain it, and heighten it, and live by it, we shall die."[23][25] He claims that White Christians are in danger of being destroyed as the result of a Jewish plot to promoteracial integration,feminism, andmulticulturalism. Simpson claimed thatbirth control andabortion are "the knife by which civilized White man is cutting his own throat",[3][23][26] and condemns technology andmiscegenation.[13] The book also promoteseugenics.[19][24] He argues for introducingpolygamy and entirely eliminatingwomen's rights, reducing them purely to the status of "breeders" to solve the question of birthrates.[27]
The book states thatAdolf Hitlerwas right and advocatesviolence against Jewish people.[21][22] Simpson compares the situation in the contemporary United States to the situation in Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power; he claims to disavowtotalitarianism, but advocates for "some Hitler" to get the West out of its current situation, which he argues will advance the West towards his ideal society.[4] His ideal society is a society of the aristocratic, ofsupermen in a Nietzschean sense.[4] Simpson's proposed "solution to theJewish problem" is to remove all citizenship of Jews, deport all Jews, and forever ban permanent Jewish habitation in Western nations.[23] If they fail to leave, he advocates acquiringMadagascar as a Jewish settlement.[22] He argues that there is no place for Black people in American society and so anyone who is Black or has Black ancestry must be deported to Africa.[4] He arguesviolence is acceptable to achieve these ends.[4] Simpson claims that the choice is between societal destruction and thisethnic cleansing, concluding the book with the question: "Which way then goest thou, Western man?"[28]
The book contains extensive footnotes and various citations to popular, scholarly, andpseudo-scholarly works.[4][29] He quotes established conspiratorial texts likeThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion andThe International Jew.[30]
The book isSpenglerian in orientation, based heavily on the ideas promoted byOswald Spengler in hisThe Decline of the West.[5][18] A 1982 bibliography of antisemitic works byRobert Singerman lists the book; Singerman wrote that it was "a mammoth glorification of Nordic, Christian civilization by a white supremacist follower ofNietzsche" and described at as "reviving Hitler's program".[13] The extremism scholarGeorge Michael wrote of it as a "750-page turgid tome",[2] while journalists Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt said it "laid out in laborious and monotonous detail his reasons for believing that white Christian people were in mortal danger of losing their race by being persuaded or forced into integration with other races, the result of an organized plot by Jews, who, he declared, most jealously guarded their own racial purity."[3]
Paul J. Devendittis wrote that it "marshals an abundance of scholarly, pseudo-scholarly and popular sources to trace the history of Western (White, Nordic) man from the beginning of time to "our present calamities." He concludes that the present crisis of the Nordic White Man lies with 1) the Negro, 2) the Jew and 3) Ourselves."[4] He noted that despite quoting Yockey, a fascist who did not believe in race being biological, Simpson clearly did, thinking that "Breed is everything; and Race is the key to History"; in its depiction of Jesus, he further compared it to Yockey's writings, saying the book had "come full cycle" back to him.[4]
In 2023, journalist Mike Rothschild described it is as extremely lengthy, at times "endless", and deeply antisemitic, anti-intellectual, and anti-communist. He critically described it as "[plodding]" through endless paragraphs of monotonous babble [...] before getting down to who's really to blame for "western man's" peril. You can probably guess."[1] He noted that "all of it is wrapped in a cloak of mystical, high-sounding nonsense that would make the book at home on the shelf of aNew Age guru with a slight fascist lean."[30] Vegas Tenold described it as a "monotonous tome" and a "diatribe against the ills that have fallen on the white race".[23]
The book did not sell well, probably in large part due to its immense length.[30] Despite this, it has been greatly influential on many notableneo-Nazi andWhite supremacist figures and groups; in 1992, one scholar wrote that it "ranks as one of the most frequently quoted and referenced works in the racial nationalist library".[4][7][29]
The book was an influence on the ideology ofWilliam Luther Pierce, the founder of the National Alliance who later republished the book.[19][31] The book also influencedBen Klassen, the founder of theWorld Church of the Creator,[19] neo-NaziHarold Covington,[4]Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., aKu Klux Klan leader and later murderer,[32] and British far-right politicianJohn Tyndall.[8] Far-right British politicianNick Griffin has quoted the work,[33] andDavid Duke credited it as a book that shaped his ideology.[34]
Which Way Western Man? was a substantial influence onRobert Jay Mathews, the founder of the neo-Nazi terrorist groupThe Order.[23][35][36] He credited the book as a key resource.[37] In a letter he wrote the day before he died in a shootout with federal officers, he said he was "especially taken" with the book, and credited it as a work that contributed to his "self-education" as a racist.[38] He had highlighted in red many passages in the copy of the book that he owned.[15][35]
Far-right writerRevilo P. Oliver reviewed it in a 1980 issue of the neo-NaziLiberty Bell magazine, and also in Pierce'sAttack! where he echoed Simpson's criticisms of Christianity as a religion of weakness; this review resulted in a meeting between Pierce and Oliver after Pierce cut Oliver's review down for being too long and containing too many attacks against Christianity unrelated to the book.[29][39][40] Tyndall also reviewed it in the late 1970s in his magazineSpearhead.[27][41] While he generally praised Simpson and saw the book as an update onNietzsche for "our current Western predicament", he criticized Simpson's proposal for entirely eliminating women's rights and introducing polygamy, arguing that this would be itself anti-Western. He critiqued Simpson's proposal here as something that would "enrage all but the most extreme male chauvinists" and as too similar to what he saw as theIslamic society.[8][27][41]Spearhead also printed extracts from the book at times.[42]
The title of the book has been used as anInternet meme by the far right.[24][30][43] The format of the meme is typically this: an individual faces two paths, usually between something more traditional positioned as good, and one modern, positioned as bad, and captioned with the title of the book, "which way, Western man?".[30] It is used by the far right and racialists who agree with Simpson, but many usages are by those are unaware of the title's origins, orironic in nature.[24][30][43]
In 2025, the official Twitter account for the United StatesDepartment of Homeland Security posted an image as part of a campaign to recruit people to joinImmigration and Customs Enforcement. The image featuresUncle Sam in front of signs pointing several different ways with various labels, and captioned "Which Way, American Man?", an apparent reference to Simpson's book.[43][44][45] This attracted public controversy and criticism from several outlets.[24][43][44]Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs,Tricia McLaughlin, denied the post was a reference to Simpson's book.[21][24]
In 2026, in the context ofAmerican pursuits of annexing Greenland, theWhite House posted a meme onTwitter with the question: "Which way, Greenland man?", which Heidi Beirich of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism described as a reference to the book.[46]
