Jonathan Bowden

Jonathan Bowden
Bowden speaking in December 2011
Born	(1962-04-12)12 April 1962 Kent, England
Died	29 March 2012(2012-03-29) (aged 49) Berkshire, England
Alma mater	Birkbeck College, University of London (B.A.)

Jonathan David Anthony Bowden (12 April 1962 – 29 March 2012)^[1] was an English far-right activist, orator, and writer. A member of the Conservative Party in the early 1990s, he later became involved in far-right^[2] organisations such as the British National Party. Bowden has been described as a "cult Internet figure" amongst the far-right movement, even several years after his death.^[3][4]

Life and career

Early life and education

Bowden was born in Kent, England, and attended Presentation College in Reading, Berkshire.^[5] His mother suffered from severe mental illness,^[3] and died when Bowden was 16 years old.

In 1984, he completed one year of a Bachelor of Arts history degree course at Birkbeck College, London University, as a mature student, but left without graduating. He subsequently enrolled at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, in autumn 1988, but left after a few months. He became a personal friend of Bill Hopkins during this time.^[6] Bowden was otherwise largely self-educated.^[3]

Conservative Party

Bowden began his political career as a member of the Conservative Party in the Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency. In 1990, he joined the Conservative Monday Club, and the following year made an unsuccessful bid to be elected onto its Executive Council. In 1991, he was appointed co-chairman with Stuart Millson of the club's media committee,^[7] and was also active in the Western Goals Institute.^[8] In 1992, Bowden was expelled from the Monday Club.^[9]

Revolutionary Conservative Caucus

Bowden and Stuart Millson co-founded the Revolutionary Conservative Caucus in November 1992^[10] with the aim of introducing "abstract thought into the nether reaches of the Conservative and Unionist party".^[8] The group published a quarterly journal entitled The Revolutionary Conservative Review. By the end of 1994, Millson and Bowden parted company and the group dissolved.

In 1993, Bowden published the book Right through the European Books Society. He was also reported to be a prominent figure in the creative milieu responsible for the emergence of Right Now! magazine.^[11]

Freedom Party

Bowden then joined the Freedom Party, for which he was treasurer for a short time,^[12] and subsequently was a member of the Bloomsbury Forum, in company with Adrian Davies.^[13]

British National Party

In 2003, Bowden joined the British National Party (BNP). He was appointed Cultural Officer, a position its leader Nick Griffin created to give Bowden officer status within the organisation. In July 2007 he resigned both his position and his party membership. Although he gave speeches at local BNP organised meetings, he never re-joined the party and cut all ties after the 2010 general election.^[14]

Many of his speeches were recorded and have been transcribed. Topics of his lectures included philosophers, politicians, and historical literary figures who were prominent in the far-right. In late 2011 and early 2012, Bowden made 14 appearances on Richard B. Spencer's Vanguard podcast.^[14]

New Right

New Right Committee

Formation	16 January 2005
Founders	Troy Southgate, Jonathan Bowden, and Jonothon Boulter
Legal status	defunct
Website	new-right.org (archive)

The New Right Committee, or simply "New Right", was a United Kingdom-based pan-European nationalist, far-right think tank founded by Bowden and Troy Southgate. The name was a reference to the French Nouvelle Droite and the group was otherwise unrelated to the wider British and American usage of the term "New Right". It was launched on 16 January 2005 at a meeting in central London.^[15] (archive accessed 27 April 2012)^[16]

In March 2005, the group described itself on its Yahoo! Groups page as follows: "We are opposed to liberalism, democracy and egalitarianism and fight to restore the eternal values and principles that have become submerged beneath the corrosive tsunami of the modern world.^[17]

In June 2005, New Right announced that it would publish New Imperium, a quarterly magazine it described as an "intellectual journal".^[18] Bowden was the organisation's press officer.^[19]

Death

On 29 March 2012 Bowden died of heart failure at his home in Berkshire at the age of 49, 14 days before his 50th birthday.^[1] He had recently been released from the psychiatric ward of a hospital, to which he was admitted after suffering a mental breakdown.^[3]

Views

Bowden believed that some hierarchies are good for society, that "liberalism is moral syphilis" and that native Europeans are justified in asserting their cultural, ethnic, psychological and spiritual hegemony over Europe.^[3]

Bowden expressed pagan religious beliefs.^[3]

Bibliography

Works

• Mad (London: Avant-Garde Publishing, 1989); (Nine-Banded Books, 2009) ISBN 978-0578006406
• Sade (London: Egotist, 1992); (Nine-Banded Books, 2013) ISBN 978-0989697217
• Aryan (London: Egotist Press, 1992); (Nine-Banded Books, 2020)
• Brute (London: Egotist Press, 1992)
• Skin (London: Egotist Press, 1992)
• Axe (London: Egotist, 1993); (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2014). ISBN 978-1909606074
• Craze (London: Egotist Press, 1993) ISBN 1-872181-17-1
• Right (London: European Books Society 1994); (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2016) ISBN 978-1909606159
• Collected Works, 6 vols. (London: Avant-guarde, 1995)
• Standardbearers – British Roots of the New Right, edited by Adrian Davies, Eddy Butler & Jonathan Bowden; Beckenham, Kent, 180pps, (April 1999)
• Apocalypse TV (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2007). ISBN 978-0-9557402-0-6
• The Art of Jonathan Bowden (1974–2007) (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2007). ISBN 978-0-9557402-2-0
• The Fanatical Pursuit of Purity (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9557402-3-7
• Al-Qa’eda Moth (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9557402-5-1
• Kratos (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9557402-1-3
• A Ballet of Wasps (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9557402-6-8
• Goodbye Homunculus! (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9557402-9-9
• The Art of Jonathan Bowden, Vol. 2 (1968–1974) (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9557402-4-4
• Lilith Before Eve (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9557402-8-2
• Louisiana Half-Face (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2010). ISBN 978-0-9565120-2-4
• The Art of Jonathan Bowden, Vol. 3 (1967–1974) (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2010). ISBN 978-0-9565120-1-7
• Our Name Is Legion (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2011). ISBN 978-0-9565120-3-1
• Colonel Sodom Goes to Gomorrah (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2011). ISBN 978-0-9565120-4-8
• Locusts Devour a Carcass (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2012). ISBN 978-0-9565120-5-5
• Spiders Are Not Insects (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2012). ISBN 978-0-9565120-6-2
• The Speeches (London: Black Front Press, 2012). ISBN 978-0957324510
• Pulp Fascism (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2013). ISBN 978-1935965640
• Western Civilization Bites Back (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2014). ISBN 978-1935965770
• Demon (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2014). ISBN 978-1909606043
• Blood (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2016). ISBN 978-1909606098
• Heat (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2017). ISBN 978-1909606197
• Deathlock (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2017). ISBN 978-1909606210
• Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2017). ISBN 978-1940933481
• Why I Am Not a Liberal (Imperium Press, 2020). ISBN 978-0648859307
• Reactionary Modernism (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2022). ISBN 978-1642641677
• The Cultured Thug (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2023). ISBN 978-1642640113

Filmography

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Jonathan Bowden.

• Official website on the Wayback Machine
• The Jonathan Bowden Archive
• BOWDEN! on Spreaker
• Jonathan Bowden Archive on YouTube, featuring all known recordings of Bowden's speeches and lectures

Further reading

• Graham D. Macklin, "Co-opting the counter culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction", Patterns of Prejudice 39/3 (2005).

This page was last edited on 11 April 2024, at 17:08