Angry White People

In the book, Pai interviews EDL leader Tommy Robinson in his hometown of Luton. She finds his views on race to be similar to those expressed by mainstream right-wing figures in Britain, rather than the overt racism of the British National Party.^[1] Pai expresses the view that white working class Britons face economic issues and contempt from Britain's political elite. The book chronicles the history of the EDL, interviewing its members and members of opposing groups such as Unite Against Fascism.^[1]

Hassan Mahamdallie of The Independent praised how Pai was able to empathise with the hardships of some white working class members of the EDL without sympathising with their political aims. He called the book an "enlightening, thoughtful and intelligent study".^[1] In the Morning Star, Paul Simon praised an "almost ethnographic level of detail" in documenting how working class Britons drifted towards the EDL.^[2] Conversely, John Lloyd of the Financial Times found the book unbalanced, as it quoted figures from the organisation Cage while strongly criticising the Quilliam think tank.^[3]

Musa Okwonga of the New Statesman found the book timely for its release during the 2015 European migrant crisis and reaction by anti-migration groups such as Pegida in Germany.^[4] Lloyd instead pointed to the recent 2016 Brussels bombings and found it unfortunate that Pai had relied on sources by Arun Kundnani, who proposes that Western fear of Islamic terrorism is exaggerated.^[3] Rod Liddle wrote a scathing review in The Spectator Australia, calling the book "hideously mistaken on almost every page".^[5]