However, Pearce has a background that is quite unlike any of his peers in academia; indeed, his life story sounds like a tale of fiction that the public can scarcely believe. For Joseph Pearce, born and raised in the old England, once belonged to an organization called the National Front (NF), a neo-fascist group of jackbooted thugs who terrorized London and other English cities for decades, with the aim of destabilizing the United Kingdoms multicultural society.

Intransigently opposed to the immigration of nonwhites into Britain, the NF founded in 1967 -- waged a campaign of violence and intimidation not only against immigrants (primarily Asians from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and blacks from the Caribbean), but also against Jews, socialists, Marxists and others they viewed as a threat to traditional white British culture and society. In fact, the NF advocated for the compulsory repatriation of all nonwhites out of Britain.

And Joseph Pearce was right in the middle of it all, during the NFs heyday in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As the leader of the National Front Youth branch, he published inflammatory articles in a magazine called Bulldog and even served two jail terms for inciting racial hatred.The National Front essentially collapsed by the late 1980s. Currently the dominant far-right political party in the United Kingdom is the British National Party.

Pearce credits Roman Catholicism, to which he converted in 1989 from Protestant-based agnosticism, with helping to profoundly transform his life and his views.He moved to the United States in 2001 and has written and edited more than a dozen books, including his own autobiography, entitled Race With the Devil: My Journey From Racial Hatred to Rational Love.

Mr. Pearce kindly agreed to speak to International Business Times to discuss his life with NF and his transformation into a bestselling author and academic.

IB TIMES: Where did you grow up and when did you join the National Front?

PEARCE: I was born in East London and grew up in the borough of Barking and Dagenham [an area of heavy Asian immigration at that time]. I joined the National Front in 1976 when I was 15 years old and soon I was publishing our propaganda sheet, Bulldog. I later edited a publication called Nationalism Today.

IB TIMES: You went to prison for activities related to these publications?

PEARCE: Yes, I served two terms in jail in the 1980s after convictions under the Race Relations Act.

IB TIMES: The National Front had its peak in the 1970s and early 1980s. Does it exist in any form today, or has it been swallowed up by the British National Party (BNP)?

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Memories Of A Former British Far-Right Extremist: The Transformation Of Joseph Pearce