America's WWII-Era Fight Against Fascism

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Maddow's new book, Prequel, chronicles the the ultra right-wing groups that sided with Hitler's Germany and plotted to overthrow the U.S. government before World War II. The plot led to the largest sedition trial in American history. The book is also about sitting members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives who colluded with a Nazi agent to spread Nazi propaganda to millions of Americans with the help of American taxpayers money. Prequel is based on Maddow's hit podcast series, Ultra.

Also, Justin Chang reviews The Boy and the Heron, by Hayao Miyazaki.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast and the following message come from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation,
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0:12.9	today at Damon Runyon.org slash donate.
0:17.2	This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. Rachel Madow has a new book titled Prequel
0:22.1	where she explores the little known story
0:24.7	about an ultra right-wing pro-Nazi movement that plotted to overthrow the US
0:29.5	government before World War II. It's also the subject of her hit podcast series Ultra.
0:35.2	George Verek was an agent from Hitler's government. He also colluded with over 20
0:40.4	sitting members of the US Senate and House of Representatives to
0:43.8	launder and spread Nazi propaganda, often at taxpayers expense. The
0:48.9	Congressman were associated with the America First Movement, a group opposed to the U.S. entering
0:54.7	World War II. The plots in 1944 led to the largest sedition trial and U.S.
1:00.3	history.
1:01.3	Madal says there's a reason to know this history now because calculated efforts are
1:06.2	now underway to undermine democracy, famine a coup, and spread disinformation.
1:12.0	The overt actions don't just involve a radical band of insurrectionists, but actual serving
1:17.0	members of Congress.
1:18.9	Mad Al for 14 years hosted MSNBC's flagship show before cutting back last year to devote more time to deeply
1:26.1	reported long-form projects like Ultra.
1:29.5	At the time when Terry Gross spoke with Rachel Madal last December, it had been announced that Stephen
1:34.5	Spielberg's production company option the movie rights for Ultra.
	...

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