"His book feels somewhat hasty. Clichés tumble over one another... interwoven with over-the-top claims: that the Proud Boys turned Berkeley, Calif., 'into an almost perpetual war zone' and altogether have organized 'some of the most gruesome acts of political violence in modern American history.'..."

"The Proud Boys have four 'degree'” of membership. For the first degree, one merely takes an oath; for the fourth and highest degree, writes Campbell, 'a Proud Boy must commit a significant act of political violence or get arrested.' A more unexpected, and revealing, requirement faces second-degree hopefuls: They must swear not to masturbate more than once a month. This comes from McInnes’s belief that pornography-induced masturbation drains away the testosterone that would otherwise make men better fighters for the beleaguered white race.... Although Campbell does not explore it, far-right paranoia about pornography goes all the way back to 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'... These anxieties reflect a greater fear: that what’s being lost is not just testosterone but masculinity itself.... A researcher who studied 43 McInnes videos that drew more than a million views each on YouTube found that only three had to do with race, while 26 concerned women, gender or feminism. One, entitled 'Single Moms: Stop Talking About How Brave and Cool You Are,' drew 2.1 million views....."

Writes Adam Hochschild in "The Proud Boys and the Long-Lived Anxieties of American Men," a review of the new book "WE ARE PROUD BOYS: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered In a New Era of American Extremism," by Andy Campbell.