This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross.

Democracies around the world are under threat, including here in the US,

where the January 6th insurrection tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

And former president Donald Trump recently called for the termination of all rules,

regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution,

to overturn the election and reinstall him as president.

Earlier anti-democratic movements in America are the subject of a new podcast series

and a new book. Rachel Maddow's new podcast, Ultra,

is about what she described as a seditious conspiracy to overthrow the US government

by a violent, ultra-right authoritarian movement aligned with Germany,

just before World War II. We plan to have her on the show Thursday.

My guest today, Adam Hokeshild, has written a new book about the threats to American democracy

from within, from 1917 to 1921. That was the period when the US entered World War I to the period

just after the war. He describes how the federal government imprisoned people for what they said.

Sensored newspapers and magazines failed to investigate white riots against black communities,

targeted labor unions and mounted a campaign to deport immigrants,

turning Ellis Island into a jail.

White supremacist and vigilante groups around the rise,

one vigilante group became an arm of the government.

Anti-German sentiment blended with anti-Semitism.

The military crafted a secret contingency plan to put the entire country under martial law.

Hokeshild's new book is called American Midnight,

...