Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund

By Arnie Bernstein

Book Overview

In the late 1930s, the German-American Bund, led by its popinjay dictator Fritz Kuhn, was a small but powerful national movement in pre-World War II America, determined to conquer the United States government with a fascist dictatorship. They met in private social halls and beer garden backrooms, gathered at private resorts and public rallies, developed their own version of the SS and Hitler Youth, published a national newspaper and--for a brief moment of their own imagined glory--seemed poised to make an impact on American politics. But while the American Nazi leadership dreamed of their Swastika Nation, an amalgamation of politicians, a rising legal star, an ego-charged newspaper columnist, and denizens of the criminal underworld utilized their respective means and muscle to bring down the movement and its dreams of a United Reich States. Swastika Nation by Arnie Bernstein is a story of bad guys, good guys, and a few guys who fell somewhere in-between. The rise and fall of Fritz Kuhn and his German-American Bund at the hands of these disparate fighters is a sometimes funny, sometimes harrowing, and always compelling story from start to finish.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250006716
• ISBN13: 9781250006714
• Release Date: September 2013
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 1.3" x 6.4"