My latest book, Hitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States is now available from all booksellers!
This book is an important examination of the American far right of the 1930s and the frighting effects it had on the country.
Americans who remember World War II reminisce about how it brought the country together. Popular mythology of the period holds that all Americans were patriotic and supported the war effort, but this was far from the case. From the German American Bund to sketchy American businessmen and the most dangerous of all – the America First Committee – the United States was deeply divided before Pearl Harbor.
HITLER’S AMERICAN FRIENDS exposes the homegrown antagonists who sought to protect and promote Hitler, leave Europeans (and especially European Jews) to fend for themselves, and elevate the Nazi regime. Some of whom include:
- Americans of German heritage who joined the Bund, whose leadership dreamed of installing a stateside Führer
- Members of the Silver Shirt Legion, run by an eccentric who claimed that Hitler fulfilled a religious prophesy
- Midwestern Catholics like Father Charles Coughlin, an early right-wing radio star who broadcast anti-Semitic tirades
- Members of Congress who used their privilege—sending mail at cost to American taxpayers—to distribute German propaganda
- Celebrity pilot Charles Lindbergh who ended up speaking for them all at the America First Committee
We try to tell ourselves it couldn’t happen here, but Americans are not immune to the lure of fascism.
A powerful look at how the forces of evil manipulate ordinary people, how we stepped back from the ledge, and the disturbing ease with which we could return to it, HITLER’S AMERICAN FRIENDS reminds us that nothing can be taken for granted when it comes to standing up to evil and dangerous ideologies, and that Americans must constantly be on guard to protect democratic rights and traditions.
Praise for Hitler’s American Friends:
“This illuminating history will interest anyone who wants to know how nationalist movements succeed or fail.” ―Publishers Weekly
“Anyone who believes that the movement to prevent America joining World War against Hitler can be confined to Charles Lindbergh and his sinister “America First” movement will be astounded by Bradley W. Hart’s well-researched, well-written and fascinating book. The truth is that isolationism was not a Mid-Western, know-nothing fad; in fact it fed off a deep vein of anti- Semitic, anti-British and often even pro-Nazi sentiment right across America. For every one of the 800,000 members of America First, there 23 other Americans who were tuning into isolationist broadcasts just before World War Two broke out in Europe. This superb book lifts the lid on America’s dark prewar secret.” ―Andrew Roberts, author of Napoleon: A Life and Churchill: Walking with Destiny
“Leveraging impeccable research, mining recently unsealed archives, and told with the eye of a cultural storyteller, Bradley Hart’s Hitler’s American Friends shows how devastatingly close pre-war American populism came to an embrace of fascism.” ―Tilar Mazzeo, New York Times bestselling author of The Hotel on Place Vendome
“This study, meticulously researched and highly readable, is a triumph. Hart’s reflections remind us that history has to be respected and understood, if not the present and with it the future will inevitably take a regressive path. A work that is equally gripping and shocking, Hitler’s American Friends should be read by all, but most importantly by those on Capitol Hill.” ―Ben Wheatley, Honorary Research Fellow School of History University of East Anglia