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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Book Shows Antisemitism In America

Scott Eyman Palm Beach Post

Among the more fascinating books published last year was “Women of the Far Right,” Glen Jeansonne’s history of the Mother’s Movement during World War II. It’s just been issued in paperback by the University of Chicago, and everything proceeds from the cover shot of a pleasantly bovine young suburban girl, age 19, giving the Hitler salute in front of the Dies committee in 1939.

Jeansonne’s book is proof, as if any were needed, of the strong strain of nativism/fascism that has always run through American politics on the fringe. Although the tone is cool and scholarly, the book is quite readable, and brings back the names and activities of forgotten antisemites such as Burton Wheeler, Father Coughlin, Gerald L.K. Smith, members of the German-American Bund, as well as still-remembered antisemites such as Charles Lindbergh, whose speech of Sept. 11, 1941, concluded by warning that Jews posed a greater threat to America than Hitler because of “their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”

Jeansonne has written a mortifying, valuable history that deserves a wide readership, never more so than these days.