Prequel

 

Prequel, An American Fight Against Fascism, is Rachel Maddow’s latest book. She does not mention anything about the current political divisiveness that we are witnessing. She does mention the former president. However, she puts forward that this divisiveness is not new in the US, and then she proceeds to give evidence of when the democracy has been threatened before by those who believe in fascism. Most likely, it’s an aspect of American history that you’ve not heard before. Just as has been the case during the course of our country, especially since the beginning of WWI and then increasing significantly before, during, and after WWII, fascist forces have been active influencers, often behind the scenes. Those forces are present again today and are a serious threat to the continuation of American’s fragile democracy.

 

So much of this information was familiar to me, in part as the result of being a student of American history, and as the result of a book I reviewed in August 2023, Mother, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal. That fictional novel revolved around some of the same characters that Maddow’s nonfiction book identified as being the enemies of as well as the heroes who were responsible for saving the democracy during WWII and the post war era.

 

I must emphasize the importance of these themes. If you read this material, you’ll learn important details about America’s contemporary political troubles. Maddow’s book gets my strongest recommendation.