Donald Warren (1)

A very difficult book to rate. There is a lot of bouncing around in time, and the footnotes in the back are nearly overwhelming (40 pages, plus 15 pages of references). So from a writing style, I'd have to down-rate it.

From an importance standpoint, though, I think it should be required reading for everyone. This is the career of Father Charles Coughlin through the 30s and 40s. I had never heard of him before (which I am ashamed to say). Coughlin was probably one of the country's loudest anti-Semites, and he apparently had an oratorical style that was unmatched for the time. He also had a weekly radio show. Warren calls him the creator of the "lunatic fringe" and of "hate radio." I would call him an American Hitler.

I'm not so dumb as to think there was no anti-Semitism in the US during WWII, but I was surprised to realize the extent of it. All I could think of while reading it was how complacent I felt while reading Roth's [The Plot Against America], thinking it was a nice fantasy story. Turns out that we may have been closer to it than I thought we were.

Sometimes, maybe freedom of speech isn't such a great idea...… (meer)