Book Review of PREQUEL by Rachel Maddow

PREQUEL: AN AMERICAN FIGHT AGAINST RACISM by Rachel Maddow (Crown, October 2023) Hardcover, 416 pages. ISBN #

9780593444511 (ISBN10: 0593444515)     

Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis.

 

Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule.

 

That effort worked—tongue and groove—alongside an ultra-right paramilitary movement that stockpiled bombs and weapons and trained for mass murder and violent insurrection.

 

At the same time, a handful of extraordinary activists and journalists were tracking the scheme, exposing it even as it was unfolding. In 1941 the U.S. Department of Justice finally made a frontal attack, identifying the key plotters, finding their backers, and prosecuting dozens in federal court.

 

None of it went as planned.

 

While the scheme has been remembered in history—if at all—as the work of fringe players, in reality, it involved a large number of some of the country’s most influential elected officials. Their interference in law enforcement efforts against the plot is a dark story of the rule of law bending and then breaking under the weight of political intimidation.

 

That failure of the legal system had consequences. The tentacles of that unslain beast have reached forward into our history for decades. But the heroic efforts of the activists, journalists, prosecutors, and regular citizens who sought to expose the insurrectionists also make for a deeply resonant, deeply relevant tale in our own disquieting times.

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

This is an incredibly thorough job of research and documentation presented in a format and writing style that is easy to read. Hats off to Rachel Maddow.

I was not aware of this particular part of history and found this very informative, engaging and disturbing. The undercover plot to keep the United States out of World War II had some prominent recruits, including members of Congress. The fact that the major court case ended in a mistrial and prosecutors were thwarted through various means (often nefarious) is alarming - - especially when current events would indicate that history could repeat itself. 

Page 310: "If we're willing to take the harder look at our American history with fascism, the truth is that our own story in this wild, uncertain twenty-first century has not an echo in the past but a prequel. For our turn in history -- and for the next time this comes around, too -- we have the advantage of knowing that which preceded us.

The story of what it took, inside and outside the government, to stop the violent American ultra-right in the run up to World War II -- that's a gift from the smart, brave, determined, resourceful, self-sacrificing Americans who went before us. If we learn it, and we choose it, we can inherit their work."