To Save a Nation: American Countersubversives, the New Deal & the Coming of World War II

by Russell Smith

A brilliant study of the relationship between domestic politics & the shaping of foreign policy, showing how fascists, anti-Semites, & other right-wing extremists such as Father Coughlin the fascist radio priest, & Fritz Kuhn of the German-American Bund became unwitting allies of the Roosevelt administration in the debate over American entry into WWII.

Genres: American History, Military History, World War II, Politics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Russell Claude Smith is a Canadian writer and newspaper columnist. Smith's novels and short stories are mostly set in Toronto, where he lives.

Smith grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He attended the Halifax Grammar School and Queen Elizabeth High School, and studied French literature at Queen's University, the University of Poitiers, and the University of Paris III. He has an MA in French from Queen's.

Russell Smith is one of Canada’s funniest and nastiest writers. His previous novels, including How Insensitive and Girl Crazy, are records of urban frenzy and exciting underworlds. He writes a provocative weekly column on the arts in the national Globe and Mail, and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Guelph. He hates folk music.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The era of the Great Depression and World War Two has always interested me as that was the time of my parents, grandparents and their friends, constant reference points to the broader culture. Of course, getting it from them and from the popular media was only a small, simplified and already virtually hagiographical part of the picture. Books around the fringes of the era have become of increasing interest as I've mastered the conventional stories.

Smith's To Save a Nation concerns the American right wing during the years leading up to the war, the years of global depression which had led to radical populist movements all over such as the fascists in Italy and the National Socialists in Germany. Their perspectives and how they changed in great part upon the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor--a change roughly comparable to the switch made by many communists after Hitler invaded the USSR--is the tale told by this book.

[Arline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a Pulitzer Prize nominee. There is much in this book to digest.

Geoff is my friend from San Mateo High School. We were both on the school newspaper.

He received his bachelor's at University of California, Berkeley; master's from UC Santa Barbara and doctorate from Berkeley. Geoff taught at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN before accepting a professorship at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He taught U.S. History and Kinesiology. He he a lifelong basketball player and sports fan. He is now Professor Emeritus and continues to live in Kingston pursuing his many passions, one of which is painting.

I am pleased to be counted as one of his friends. We have many lively discussions on Facebook and by email.

[Seán · Rating 3 out of 5]

Know Nothing --> Silver Shirt --> John Birch --> Teabagger