Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism

 “His eyes flashed ‘something of the Blonde Beast of Nietzsche.’ Like a gigantic dynamo, the journalist-poet might have been thinking, charged with the might of ten thousand magnetic storms. The first words Viereck wrote of the man would prove prophetic: ‘Adolf Hitler must be handled with care. He is a human explosive.’”

Maddow employs dark humor and juxtaposition within this passage. She recalls Viereck’s overly flowery prose from his novel The House of the Vampire, comparing the vampire protagonist of the book to Hitler. Through this juxtaposition, Maddow mocks Viereck, all while implying that Viereck was enamored with power, thematically supporting The Allure of Power.

“Miss Merrill regarded the enterprise, right down to the occasional German-language-only get-togethers and Johnson’s hiring of a German manservant, Rudolph, as what we now call cosplay—overgrown boys in dress-up. Philip had ‘a weak character and [an] immature mind,’ she said. This view was widely shared among people who knew Johnson well; they described him as ‘flighty’ or ‘rather silly’ or ‘too much of a fool to worry about.’ Philip Johnson was ‘harmless,’ concluded the sheriff of the county in Ohio where Johnson grew up and kept a home.”

Throughout the book, Maddow shows that fascist and antisemitic Americans were often not taken as serious threats even as the pro-Nazi movement gained power within the US. Many of the men who Maddow highlights were regarded by people as unserious and harmless, even though they did indeed pose threats to US democracy. Here, Maddow uses modern language—cosplay—to wryly ground the passage with a relatable description.

“Then, too, there was Long’s seemingly limitless appetite for and accretion of authority. ‘A perfect democracy can come close to looking like a dictatorship,’ Huey told one reporter, ‘a democracy in which the people are so satisfied they have no complaint.’ He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930, but insisted he could simultaneously hold on to the governorship until 1932, when he installed his chosen puppet. And why shouldn’t he? Who was going to stop him?”

Maddow uses a direct quote from Long to spell out how close Long’s reign came to dictatorship, evoking the theme of Prominent Americans Versus American Ideals, as well as the theme of The Allure of Power. She portrays Long as a complex figure, one who fulfilled his campaign promises but who nevertheless openly admitted that he had an insatiable appetite for power.