Thread by @CasMudde

"Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe" (2007) is by far my most awarded and influential book, and I don't think that will ever change. Here is back story to the book.

cambridge.org/core/books/pop…

1. I decided to write a more general book on radical right parties in Europe shortly after my PhD thesis was published by @ManchesterUP

That book is now Open Access 👇

library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.…

2. I got sidetracked by working on other issues (civil society, democratization, Euroscepticism) with my friend Petr Kopecky.

3. This was in part a consequence of my struggle with conceptualization. I had become unhappy with "extreme right" but found "radical right" also lacking. This led me to read and write more on populism.

4. In the meantime, I had moved from Budapest to Edinburgh to Antwerp (all for personal rather than professional reasons), divorced, and escaped in university administration.

5. By the time I was ready to work on a book project again, I was mainly driven by becoming more "marketable", as I expected that I would probably move again for personal reasons in the future.

6. Knowing that I had the best chance at landing a contract with a top UP if I worked on "national populist parties", I asked Routledge whether I could try a few top UPs. If they would say no, I would still write for them.

7. I got an advance contract from Cambridge UP and forever grateful to my friend CF for giving me this opportunity. 🙏

8. It still took years to really get going. The contract was for a book on "national populist parties" but I changed my main terminology several times, often getting frustrated and desperate.

9. To be perfectly honest, if it wouldn't have been my (one) chance to publish at Cambridge UP, and thereby increase my chances of moving and working anywhere, I would have given up many times over.

10. Side note: my first book was almost published by Cambridge UP. They had one positive review but second one was not coming. Manchester UP really wanted an answer, so I went with them after several weeks.

11. A few months later Ashgate, which had also offered me a contract, sent me their referee reports. Both were glowing, but one was addressed to... Cambridge UP! 👀 #TrueStory

12. Anyway, it took me ca. 3 years to actually write "Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe", despite having low teaching load. I was able to finish it while being on Fulbright at Rutgers University.

13. I still remember utter relief that this was "over". I just wanted it done. It was pure work. It would take me months before I could read it and actually be proud of it.

14. I honestly never thought that "populist radical right" would be adopted by anyone else.

Even some of my own graduate students didn't use it. 😂

15. My ex-supervisor Peter Mair submitted it for the Stein Rokkan Prize. At that time there was still an age limit and it was the last year I qualified.

16. I will never forget waking up to an email from Peter, just after I moved to the US, saying not much more than "I am so proud of you." This is still my most emotional and important professional moment today and I doubt it will ever be topped.

17. It took another few hours, before Peter would explain to me, in a phone call, why he was so proud. I had won the Stein Rokkan Prize with my book. 🤯

18. It is now almost 15 years later. PRRPs in Europe has almost 5,000 citation 😱 and the term "populist radical right" is broadly used. The book has survived the test of time even if it is getting more and more dated.

19. I agreed years ago to write a "successor" for Cambridge UP, but struggle with same issues -- sidetracked by populism, public outreach, family, life, light burn out, and, yes, conceptual confusion.

20. Almost three years ago (!) I drew a conceptual framework over an A3 page that was so complex it made me depressed! 🤣 So, I stepped away from it, and escaped in side projects.

21. This pandemic came, academically, at the right moment for me. I needed a break from academia, I needed to step back from populism, and I needed isolation to want to read and write again.

22. Being able to write non-academic or popular-scientific work, like columns and "The Far Right Today" allowed me to develop original ideas that I cannot(or don't want to) "prove" empirically.

23. My aim is to merge a summary of the key points of "Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe" with an elaboration of the key ideas from "The Far Right Today" in the next book, provisionally entitled "European Populist Radical Right Parties in the 21st Century".

24. I haven't started writing yet, and barely have started reading the vast literature published since 2007. And I don't want to stress about a deadline now. So, I just hope to have it out before 2027, the 20th anniversary of PRRPs in Europe.

25. I think I can make that. And, more importantly, I am increasingly excited about writing the book.... even if I am still completely confused about the conceptual framework. 😂 #TheEnd

PS > One of the coolest things about the book is that the cover has a picture that I took myself at a (then still) Vlaams Blok meeting. 📷