Rioting and disorder has broken out in many American cities in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, an African American, truck-driver and security guard, who was being placed under arrest by Minneapolis police.  Angry crowds have looted businesses, destroyed neighborhoods, and assaulted police officers as well as innocent bystanders trying to protect their property.  Public officials have dithered while watching their cities burn.

Until the dust clears and information about the culprits is gathered and made public, citizens can only speculate as to the composition of these crowds and who are the prime movers orchestrating the violence. That, at the very least, cadres within these movements show signs of design, organization, and outside funding appears beyond dispute.  President Donald Trump has pointed the finger of blame at the shadowy group Antifa, calling it a “domestic terrorist” organization.  Any number of news organizations have called on a history professor named Mark Bray, author of a book on Antifa, to shed light on its origin, composition, and goals.

But in an essay, “Mark Bray’s Lies about Antifa,” published by The American Spectator, Mary Grabar, Resident Fellow of The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI), raises questions about Professor Bray’s integrity and qualifications to be cast into such a role.  Dr. Grabar points out that Bray’s book on Antifa “rivals in historical distortion Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.”  Bray, a far-left activist himself, instead of telling hard truths about Antifa, has sought to sugarcoat its members as a bunch of sweet do-gooders who stand as a strong phalanx impeding the advance of the allegedly bigoted legions who voted for the “fascist” Donald Trump.

Dr. Grabar received her Ph.D. in English and is the author of Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America (Regnery 2019), which reached best-seller status at Amazon.