63 pages • 2-hour read
Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism
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Chapters 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “‘Louisiana Was Not Quite Ready’”
Philip Johnson and Alan Blackburn arrived in Louisiana in early 1935 and attempted to see Huey Long. This was difficult, as Long was always surrounded by troops and bodyguards. These men often physically assaulted reporters. One of the bodyguards, Joe Messina, faced a charge of assault with attempt to murder, after he severely beat a small-statured reporter who took a photo of Long. Johnson eventually got a meeting with Long’s secretary, but Long’s cohort viewed Johnson and Blackburn as useless to their cause.
Meanwhile, Long considered running for president the following year. At the same time, he was forcing through a state bill that would make it illegal for federal officials to exercise authority in Louisiana unless explicitly granted by the Constitution; this would further solidify Long’s power within the state.
On September 9, 1935, Long was shot while walking through the state capitol and later died of his wounds. More than 100,000 people attended his funeral. Many collapsed in despair, professing their loyalty and their anguish over Long’s death.
Obituaries noted that Long was a complex figure; while he met his campaign promises to build schools, hospitals, bridges and roads, these came at an unknown cost due to bribes and corruption. Moreover, as obituaries said, he was “a forerunner of American fascism” who “was gradually copying the Hitler state, but Louisiana was not quite ready for blood purges and internment camps” (40).
Chapter 5 Summary: “‘He Had a Very High Opinion of Me’”
Lawrence Dennis “cultivated a reputation as an astute and fearless champion of European-style fascism as the irresistible next (and preferred) means of American governance” (44). After working for the US State Department in the 1920s, Dennis became an open critic of the US domestic and foreign policy. Once Hitler rose to power in the 1930s, Dennis emerged as the foremost advocate for fascist, authoritarian government in the US. The text describes Dennis as elitist and sexist, hypersensitive toward himself but cruel toward others.
In 1936, Dennis traveled across the US and Europe, meeting with prominent intellectuals and politicians, including both Benito Mussolini and Hitler. He was invited to attend the Nazi Party’s “Rally of Honor,” which provided a huge display of German military might—in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, which placed restrictions on Germany’s military. Antisemitism continued to grow at this time. Nazis were forcing Jewish people to leave Germany, all while refusing to renew their passports.
During his meetings with the Nazis, Dennis suggested that they be more strategic in oppressing Jewish people; he advised them to take an indirect approach rather than explicitly spelling out their aims, instead emulating the way that the US treated Black people. The Nazis told Dennis to focus on the US and let them focus on Europe.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Bullet Holes”
In 1936, Philip Johnson used his connections to the architecture world to get a platform built for Father Charles Coughlin, who planned to make a speech in Chicago. Coughlin was a radio priest with tens of millions of listeners. An ally of Huey Long, Coughlin had embarked on a speaking tour to oppose the reelection of President Roosevelt.
Johnson wanted his newly designed podium to rival the impressiveness of the Nazi Youth Rally he had witnessed in Potsdam. However, he fell short. Coughlin projected considerably less power than planned:
[I]nstead of looking massive, monolithic, inspiring, he looked like an insect, a nondescript, ineffectual speck floating alone, his little hands impotently cutting the air as he spoke. The visual impact of Philip Johnson’s very first fascist building project was meh (57-58).
Throughout the summer of 1936, Coughlin spoke in support of William Lemke, who was running against Roosevelt, but Coughlin’s popularity failed to transfer to Lemke. As Lemke’s prospects dwindled, Coughlin continued to speak out against Roosevelt, and his rhetoric became increasingly violent and desperate.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Silver Shirts”
In 1936, Arnold Sevareid, a young reporter at a local Minneapolis newspaper, infiltrated the Silver Shirts, a secretive antisemitic group. While Philip Johnson’s Gray Shirts had failed to gain popularity, the Silver Shirts were gaining traction. Sevareid found that the members of the Silver Shirts were driven by delusional fear and hatred toward Jewish people. They believed that Jews had orchestrated all wars throughout history. They passed around propaganda like the Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion and believed that one day they would have to take extreme action against the Jewish population.
The Silver Shirts were founded by William Dudley Pelley. Pelley experienced some success as a screenwriter in Hollywood and then became a Christian occult leader who claimed that he had channeled messages—including textbooks full of knowledge—from a divine source. When he failed to sell many of these textbooks, he pivoted. Realizing that messages of love were not as powerful as those of hate, he founded the Silver Shirts and attached himself to the pro-Hitler movement, quickly gaining a large following. He also announced he would run for president in 1936.
Sevareid managed to get his exposé on the Silver Shirts published in the newspaper, with a prominent front-page placement, but his piece was edited to read as more of a mocking article poking fun at ridiculous people, rather than a warning about a serious and growing antisemitic threat.
Chapters 4-7 Analysis
In this section of Prequel, a recurring pattern emerges, revealing that many US citizens in the 1930s did not take the growing support for Nazism seriously. This skepticism is exemplified in Sevareid’s exposé on the Silver Shirts. Despite the serious threat that this antisemitic group posed, Sevareid’s piece was edited to read as a mocking article, downplaying the severity of the situation:
[T]he articles were edited in such a way that they didn’t land the punch he had hoped, ‘not as I wanted them written, as a cry of alarm,’ he would later say, ‘but as a semihumorous exposé of ridiculous crackpots.’ ‘Ridiculous,’ ‘ludicrous,’ ‘preposterous’—the editors had peppered these signifiers of Silver Shirt fecklessness and absurdity throughout Sevareid’s six-part series (73).
This pattern echoes the events described in Chapter 1, when Philip Johnson was perceived as harmless, silly, and even ridiculous. The underestimation of the fascist movement becomes a thread woven throughout the text, shedding light on the initial dismissiveness toward the looming dangers. The text suggests that this very underestimation helped allow the Nazi movement to grow extensively before the US acted to combat it.
The Allure of Power continues to unfold as a theme throughout these chapters, as illustrated by the massive attendance at Huey Long’s funeral. The text quotes from a contemporaneous article to paint a picture of the events:
‘All day men and women fought for a place near the grave, shoving and tugging against the ropes that police and guardsmen used to hold them back,’ one reporter wrote of the scene. ‘Every fifteen minutes or so an elderly man or woman would crumple quietly to the ground.’ A six-year-old girl was nearly trampled in the crush of the crowd. While members of the LSU marching band, in sun-splashed purple-and-gold uniforms, beat out a baleful dirge, and pallbearers shouldered the casket down the forty-eight steps of the capitol, one old-timer fell to his knees. ‘I don’t care,’ said the man. ‘I’d just as soon die for Huey’ (38-39).
Long, despite his authoritarian rule and questionable methods, drew a huge crowd, and many were distraught over his death. Beyond his popularity for keeping campaign promises and his populist platform of wealth equality, this response paradoxically suggests that the allure of power, even in its more authoritarian manifestations, captivates and influences individuals.
Lawrence Dennis, a proponent of fascism, further highlights this theme. The text points out that what drew many people to authoritarianism was not just power but cruelty, noting of Dennis’s callous views:
It was part of what made Dennis the leading spokesman for fascism in America in 1936, and also an exemplar of why certain people found comfort in authoritarian ideology. One big appeal of fascism, if nothing else, was its unapologetic embrace of cruelty (47).
This nuanced exploration underscores the complex motivations behind the attraction to powerful figures and ideologies. The analytical and strategic nature of the fascist movement once again came to the forefront as Lawrence Dennis advised the Nazis to adopt a more indirect and strategic approach in their oppression of Jewish people, mirroring US treatment of Black people. This insight into the tactical thinking within the fascist ranks underscores the calculated nature of their ideologies. Similarly, William Dudley Pelley’s cynical pivot from messages of love to hate for political gain reveals the manipulative and strategic dimension of the fascist movement. In addition, these instances illuminate the intricate planning and consideration that went into the propagation of fascist ideals.
A stylistic pattern emerges throughout the book, as it employs verbal mockery to punctuate the story, poking fun at pro-Nazi fascists, as in the sentence, “The visual impact of Philip Johnson’s very first fascist building project was meh” (57-58). This creative and colorful language is not only a stylistic choice but also a form of critique. While Prequel is a meticulously researched and complex work, it uses these moments of mockery to highlight the absurdity and self-importance of the individuals involved in the fascist movement. This stylistic pattern adds a layer of commentary, emphasizing the need to scrutinize and question the stories and characters presented, even in the face of grave historical events.
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