Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow

Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism

by Rachel Maddow

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History & Foreign Affairs

Members of Congress used their free mailing privileges to send Nazi propaganda to millions of Americans. Maddow traces that Nazi-funded disinformation campaign and the homegrown fascism around it before and during World War II, and the activists, reporters and prosecutors who fought back, as a warning about democracy's fragility.

Core ideas
  • Agents in Congress: Nazi agent George Sylvester Viereck worked with Representative Hamilton Fish and Minnesota Senator Ernest Lundeen to spread pro-German propaganda.
  • Homegrown fascists: The Silver Shirts, the Christian Front and California's American White Guard, which Leon Lewis's private spy ring infiltrated, share the story with Coughlin and Lindbergh.
  • Unfinished accountability: Powerful members of Congress undercut the 1944 sedition cases, though a Publishers Weekly reviewer questions whether the movements were as dangerous as she suggests.
Published2023
Pages416
ISBN9780593444511
ReadNov 2023

Connected to 9 other books

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