Rachel Maddow on "Prequel" and the rise of the fascist movement in America
CBSN
It may be hard to fathom that some 20,000 Americans would gather under an image of George Washington for a pro-Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939. But Rachel Maddow has spent the last few years sifting through similarly sobering stories for her new book, "Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism" (Crown). It's a cautionary tale about threats to democracy set in the era of World War II.
"Not only were there lots of Americans who didn't want us to fight [in the war]," Maddow said, "but there was a lot of them who wanted us to fight on the other side, with the Nazis."
Bettmann via Getty ImagesMaddow, who hosts a show on MSNBC, first explored the story in a series of podcasts, "Ultra," focusing on surprising connections between Americans and Nazi interests: "The organizational diversity of people who were on that side of the calculous ahead of World War II is shocking to me," she said.
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