Notes & links: 'Prequel' by Rachel Maddow

Thank you to everyone who joined last Sunday's discussion of Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow.

As expected, there was much to discuss in this little-told part of US history and its echoes in our times.

A few links that arose for further exploration:

• Ultra: Rachel Maddow's podcast that led to the book. View photos and historical documents related to the people and events in the book and podcast.  

• Documentary filmmaker Ken Burn's documentary about Huey Long.

• Confessions of a Nazi Spy, the 1939 film whose impact is described in the book.

• "In Our Own Backyard: Resisting Nazi Propaganda in Southern California 1933-1945": Highlights from the Leon Lewis archives at CSU Northridge.

• The 2022 film Amsterdam, which centers around a fascist plot in the US.

• Books that Maddow credited, such as Hitler in Los Angeles by Steven Ross, Nazis of Copley Square by Charles Gallagher, Hitler's American Friends by Bradley Hart, Why We Fight: Congress and the Politics of World War II by Nancy Beck Young, and Hitler's American Model by James Whitman.

Also, FYI, the Center for the Art of Translation is holding a reading at City Lights on March 19 with the translator of a newly published work by Clarice Lispector, whose novel The Hour of the Star we discussed in 2023. Details here.

Our March Discussion

This month, we turn to science with Neil deGrasse Tyson's book Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

Sunday, March 23, 2025

11:15 a.m. to approx. 12:30 p.m.

Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco