Hitler's American Friends

The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States

By: Bradley W. Hart

Narrated by: Chris Ciulla

Hitler's American Friends, by Bradley W. Hart, is an audiobook examining the strange terrain of Nazi sympathizers, nonintervention campaigners, and other voices in America who advocated on behalf of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II.

Americans who remember World War II reminisce about how it brought the country together. The less-popular truth behind this warm nostalgia: Until the attack on Pearl Harbor, America was deeply, dangerously divided.

Bradley W. Hart's 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 these friends were Americans of German heritage who joined the Bund, whose leadership dreamed of installing a stateside Führer. Some were as bizarre and hair-raising as the Silver Shirt Legion, run by an eccentric who claimed Hitler fulfilled a religious prophesy. Some were Midwestern Catholics like Father Charles Coughlin, an early right-wing radio star who broadcast anti-Semitic tirades. They were even members of Congress who used their franking privilege - sending mail at cost to American taxpayers - to distribute German propaganda. And celebrity pilot Charles Lindbergh 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. Hitler's American Friends is 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.

©2018 Bradley W. Hart (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Riveting

Learned so much about the US's fascination with fascism. Turns out we cycle through the crazy and here's hoping that sanity prevails every time.

I bet the book was better…

A solid in-depth history about something those of us who were born in the Forties and after never learned in our classes - but should have. The parallels in Hitler’s American Friends to today, beg for a sequel: Putin’s American Friends. We can but hope that even though the public is ignorant of the book’s history, our national security services and the FBI are well aware of it and are making sure it doesn’t happen again.
I will read the book - so I can stop and re-read things I want to commit to memory, and to assign a narrator’s voice - in my head- that doesn’t go so fast, or feign a German accent.

Compelling historical research

Little known history of Nazi influence in the US, beginning in the pre-WWII years and progressing until the 1960’s, when most of the conspirators died. Highly recommended.

Rachel Maddow was right …

An insightful depiction on how power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. The cyclical nature of this behavior across the same political group over and over again is just proof that if you don’t learn the first time you’re doomed to repeat it again with similar disastrous results. Now back to the Bag Man by Rachel.

America’s pre-WW2 Nazism adherents

Narration is acceptably clear but lacks interesting variety in pace, rhythm, inflection, and all the things that make of a narration compelling, not merely serviceable.

Descriptions of origin of isolationism, turning points, appeal, and leadership are all thoroughly documented, analyzed, and organized chronologically in easily understood format.

RECOMMENDED, because this a vitally important chapter in our country’s history, which is so pertinent the country’s present divisiveness.

I didn't know about US Hitlers friends

Fascinating history of the far right in America before and during WW 2. I wasn't aware of a lot of it. It has evhos today with “America First” and other such phrases. It also is a clear earning from the past to us today with Trump republican fascist party. I highly recommend it.

A MUST READ!

With so little covered on the subject of Nazis and sympathizers within America during the run up to the war, this book is so enlightening. This book isn't boring. A complete comprehensive covering of incidents and the different facets where sympathies were building up.

Very informative

It gave me hope that we defeated crazy fascism before. Not perfectly and with lots of bumps and stumbles but we did it and can do it again hopefully

Great Insights into Propaganda and Totalitarianism

I knew the United States had many pro-Nazi groups, but the extent of the network exposed in this book still shocked me. This book gives insights into pro-Reich social organizations that exploited patriotic names such as “The America First Committee.” The book exposes members of Congress and US businesses who feared financial losses if the Nazi regime became destabilized. One congressional office even ran a franking scheme, using that privilege to send materials to constituents that had Third Reich propaganda inserted. One of their greatest allies was Charles Lindberg, tarring his heroic legacy as he turned more rabidly anti-semitic and delved deeper into pro-Nazi politics following his visit to Germany.

It explores major US corporations that not only benefited from the slave labor of the totalitarian regime but actively supplied them with technology and munitions. Some of these organizations were so outspoken that the Reich disavowed them, considering their propaganda too extreme and damaging. Think about that. How extreme do views need to be to be disavowed by Joseph Goebbels?

The many parallels between the rise of modern totalitarianism and that of the Nazi era become clear as you turn the pages and learn how otherwise good people slowly turned over their will and freedom—not initially to one man, but to the elimination of a created “them,” a perceived enemy that that only that one man, that one system could falsely promise to deliver.

Don’t do accents.

1. Mr. Ciulla’s poor, half hearted attempts at foreign accents while reading direct quotes was an unnecessary distraction. 2. Saying, “Quote…unquote.” would have been of more help for all direct quotes, accented or not.