Peter Brimelow

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Peter Brimelow (born October 13, 1947) is a British-born American writer. He is the founder of the website VDARE, an anti-immigration site associated with white supremacy,<ref name="Time">Template:Cite magazine</ref> white nationalism,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Multiple sources:

</ref> and the alt-right.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Brimelow has worked as a writer and editor at National Review and as a columnist for Dow Jones’/ MarketWatch.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He founded the Template:Vanchor in 1999 and served as its first president. Brimelow describes himself as a paleoconservative,<ref name="beirich">Template:Cite journal</ref> and he has been called a leader within the alt-right movement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In January 2021, a judge dismissed a lawsuit Brimelow brought against The New York Times, ruling that that the Times had not defamed him by calling him a "white nationalist".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life and education

Brimelow was born in 1947 in Warrington, Lancashire, England, the son of Bessie (née Knox) and Frank Sanderson Brimelow, a transport executive.<ref name="NYT1986wedding">Template:Cite news</ref> Brimelow and his twin brother, John, studied at the University of Sussex (BA, 1970) and at Stanford University (MBA, 1972).<ref name="NYT1986wedding" />Template:Better source needed

Brimelow is an American citizen.<ref name="politico" />

Career

After working as a securities analyst, Brimelow moved to Toronto to work as a business writer and editor at the Financial Post and Maclean's. From 1978 to 1980, he was an aide to US Senator Orrin Hatch. In 1980, Brimelow moved to New York and worked for Barron's and Fortune.Template:Citation needed

In 1990, Brimelow and Leslie Spencer's Forbes article, "The Litigation Scandal", won a Gerald Loeb Award in the "Magazine" category.<ref name=MI-19900901>Template:Cite web</ref>

Views and publications

Brimelow opposes both illegal and legal immigration.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He has referred to Spanish-speaking immigrants as "completely dysfunctional",<ref name=":0" /> and stated that California used to be a "paradise" but was "rapidly turning into Hispanic slum".<ref name=":0" /> Brimelow has been described as a white nationalist<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and a white supremacist.<ref name="cjr_2019">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2020, Brimelow sued The New York Times for labeling him a "white nationalist".<ref name="politico">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022, Brimelow called for a reversal of Brown v. Board of Education, a 1954 Supreme Court decision that directed an end to segregated schools.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Brimelow has appeared as a guest on The Political Cesspool, a "pro-white" talk radio show. Following the 2008 presidential election, Brimelow advocated that to win, the Republican Party should focus on "white votes".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>VDARE Foundation – SPLCenter.org Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web </ref>Template:Better source needed

As of 2010 he was a senior contributing editor at Alternative Right, a website edited by Richard Spencer, according to the SPLC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He has spoken at events hosted by the National Policy Institute run by Spencer, according to the SPLC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Brimelow appeared on a panel discussing multiculturalism during the 2012 Conservative 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 from MSNBC and PFTAW, Al Cardenas of the American Conservative Union denied knowing Brimelow.<ref name=":0" />

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 of antisemitic conspiracy theorist<ref name="ADL2013">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Kevin MacDonald in the following manner: "The views of Alex Linder are not fundamentally different from those of Kevin MacDonald, who is published by Peter Brimelow and Richard 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

According to Anti-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.<ref name=":1" />

Alien Nation

Template:External media Brimelow's book Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster criticizes U.S. immigration policy after 1965.<ref name="foreignaffairs_2019">Template:Cite journal</ref>

A review in Foreign 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.<ref name="foreignaffairs_2019"/>

The Southern Poverty Law Center described Alien Nation as an "infamous anti-immigrant book", and pointed to Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian's positive review of the book as evidence that Brimelow's organization had close ties to white nationalists.<ref name="Piggott Amend">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Better source needed

The Worm in the Apple

Template:External media The Worm in the Apple discusses public education and teachers' unions, considering unions as "highly destructive".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> David Gordon summarizes Brimelow's view in his review of the book in The Mises Review: "to attempt so far-reaching a goal as universal high school education is foolish."<ref name="Mises">Template:Cite web</ref> John O'Sullivan<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> praised the book. For the Hoover Institution journal Education Next, public policy consultant George Mitchell wrote: "Brimelow... demonstrates how collective 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 school polemic".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Patriot Game

In a 2011 article in Maclean's, John M. Geddes stated that Brimelow's book The 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 Minister Stephen Harper.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

VDARE

Template:Main VDARE was an American far-right<ref>Multiple sources:

</ref> website promoting opposition to immigration to the United States.<ref name="cjr_2019" /> It is associated with white supremacy,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Time" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> white nationalism,<ref>Alan Rappeport, Hillary Clinton Denounces the 'Alt-Right,' and the Alt-Right Is Thrilled Template:Webarchive, The New York Times (August 26, 2016), A11: "The white nationalist website VDare..."</ref><ref>John Woodrow Cox, The financial secrecy behind white-nationalist group known for 'Hail Trump,' Nazi salutes Template:Webarchive, The Washington Post (December 1, 2016): "Three white-nationalist nonprofits similar in size and mission — the VDare Foundation, the New Century Foundation and the Charles Martel Society..."</ref><ref>Caitlin Dewey, Amazon, PayPal and Spotify inadvertently fund white supremacists. Here’s how Template:Webarchive. Washington Post (March 17, 2015): "VDARE, a radical white nationalist site"</ref> and the alt-right.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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".<ref name="Jacobs">Rebecca Nelson Jacobs, "VDARE" in Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia (ed. Kathleen R. Arnold, Vol. 1: A-R), pp. 481-82.</ref> Brimelow established VDARE in 1999 and served as its editor.<ref name="Jacobs" />

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has described Brimelow's website VDARE as a hate group,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>VDARE Template:Webarchive Retrieved August 2, 2012.</ref>Template: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 nationalists Jared Taylor and Sam Francis.<ref name="beirich" /> It has been called "white nationalist" by the Rocky Mountain News.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It has also been described as white supremacist.<ref name="Time"/> VDARE has also been described by the Anti-Defamation League as a racist anti-immigrant group.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2024, Brimelow suspended the operations of VDARE.<ref name="CNN" />

In August 2025, New York attorney general Letitia James sued VDARE 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, the Samuel Taylor Suit Cottage also known as "Berkeley Castle" in West Virginia.<ref name="NYT">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="CNN">Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

Brimelow's first wife was Margaret Alice "Maggy" Laws, a native of Newfoundland, Canada who worked for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research when they met in New York. They were married until her death on February 6, 2004, from cancer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Brimelow had two children with Laws, Alexander and Hannah Claire. As of June 2021, Hannah is a blogger for political commentator Tim Pool's website Timcast.<ref name="TDB">Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Writings

References

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