In 2020, America was hit by three waves of catastrophe: the Covid-19 pandemic, widespread racial violence, and a stolen presidential election, leading to economic devastation, explosions of black crime and white flight in diverse cities, and a government crippled by deep polarization and the stench of illegitimacy. In The Year America Died, Greg Johnson comments on these crises and explains how they can be used to promote white identity politics.

The crises of 2020 are opportunities for white identitarians, but in many ways, the movement is unable to capitalize on them due to bad ideas, bad organization, and bad actors. Thus the book ends on a self-critical note, with essays on the pathologies of the White Nationalist movement, including terrorism, accelerationism, paranoia, misogyny, injustice, embitterment, putting personalities above principles, and other follies.