There is a lot of discussion in the academic literature and media these days about right-wing extremism and its possible causes in modern capitalist systems. What is often forgotten, however, is that right-wing extremism existed in other systems, for example, in the state socialist systems of the former eastern Bloc. This book represents an attempt to address this situation by investigating the nature and causes of right-wing extremism in the former German Democratic Republic. Based on original research in the former GDR state archives and interviews with former right-wing extremists, the Swastika in Socialism reconstructs and discusses the nature of right-wing extremism in the GDR, focusing on the decade 1980-1990. The major aim of the book is to provide a fuller characterisation of the phenomenon in order to understand its existence and development in a self-proclaimed anti-fascist state. Essentially, this is an academic book - of interest to students of German history and political science - that shows that right-wing extremism existed in the GDR precisely because it was NOT a socialist state. On the contrary, my argument is that the GDR was, in many respects, a highly conservative and reactionary state which, like all states, was forced to involve itself in a nation-building process which was, in the end, always more important to the regime than its empty and lofty claims to socialism and internationalism. This argument, if it is correct, tells us alot about nation-buidling and right-wing extremism today. I`ll give my book 4 stars (not something I feel comfortable with) because I think the empirical evidence is well presented but the argumentation needs tidying up and why the hell is my book so expensive?! Not my fault.