Malik Books proudly presents an evening with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning historian and New York Times bestselling author, for a compelling Book Talk celebrating his powerful new book, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age.

In this timely and thought-provoking work, Dr. Kendi examines the ideas that have shaped—and distorted—democracy, tracing how authoritarian thinking takes root and spreads across societies. This important conversation will explore history, power, resistance, and the urgent questions defining our current moment.

Guests will gain insight from one of the nation’s most influential public intellectuals and have the opportunity to engage with Dr. Kendi’s work in person.

Date: March 25, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM (Doors open at 6:00 PM)
Location: Miracle Theater, Inglewood, CA
Host: Malik Books
Moderator: TBD

This is a must-attend event for readers, scholars, educators, activists, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the forces shaping our democracy today.

Event Details

• All tickets include a pre-signed of
  CHAIN OF IDEAS: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
• Off Site Event
• Admission to the Chain of Ideas Book Talk and Conversation at the Miracle Theater
• Doors open at 6:00 PM

About Author

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is one of the world’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. His books have been translated into multiple languages and republished throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Kendi is Professor of History and the founding director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, an interdisciplinary research enterprise examining global racism. He is author of many highly acclaimed bestsellers including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He is the author of the international bestseller How to Be an Antiracist. Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.

CHAIN OF IDEAS, the latest from National Book Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi.

Recall the words chanted in Charlottesville, Virginia, but heard around the world: “You will not replace us!” Recall the string of mass shooters around the world—in Oslo and Christchurch, Buffalo, El Paso, and Pittsburgh—who claimed their crimes were a defense against “White genocide.” Recall business and media figures cultivating anxiety and furor over demographic change. These incidents only scratch the surface of this ascendant idea: Popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world have been expressing some version of great replacement theory, eroding democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change and restoring national greatness. What is great replacement theory? Variations on the theory have existed for centuries, but it was given this name by a French novelist in 2011 who believed Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, brought by shadowy elites to “replace” Europe’s White population. From there, politicians and theorists—whether in the United States or the United Kingdom, Germany or Chile, Hungary or Australia—repackaged the conspiracy as a story of “globalists” welcoming “migrant criminals” and diversity initiatives to take away the jobs, cultures, electoral power, and the very lives of White people. Over time, great replacement theory has expanded the threat to include citizens, men, Jews, Christians, heterosexuals, and ethnic majorities in countries as distinct as Russia, El Salvador, Brazil, Italy, and India. All are targeted with the message that they are under an existential attack that only a strongman can prevent.

In our fast-shifting political landscape, most people are unfamiliar with this theory’s origins and its spread, which isn’t a coincidence. In Chain of Ideas, international bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi uses exacting and clear prose to uncover the roots of great replacement theory and its various mutations around the world. It is an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it