The Rachel Maddow of his day, campaigning journalist, John L. Spivak, spent five years investigating the pre-war fascist penetration of America. His exposé of the Nazi spy networks, political intrigues and pro-fascist public figures and movements in the United States, Mexico and Central America was meticulous and mesmerising.

Fascist governments abroad secretly funded, encouraged and influenced Americans, such as Catholic Priest, Father Coughlin the most popular political radio broadcaster in the country, to create distrust in the government, disseminate lies and ferment political division and hate, in ways that have clear parallels with today’s America. Spivak shows how the influential Cliveden Set in Britain, and the Hooded Ones in France, were a symptom of the fascism quickly infecting the Americas. There was the rise of the Silver Shirts in the U.S. and the Gold Shirts in Mexico, Henry Ford’s antisemitism was being admired by Hitler, while Japanese secret agents were getting to know the military and naval capabilities of America in the Panama Canal Zone.

Spivak’s classic, thrilling book of reportage, was immediate and vital in its day, Unfortunately, the nightshades of fascism are appearing once again and his book still speaks to how ugly passions will trump rational thought if left unchecked.

This new edition includes an introduction, by playwright and author Tim Dalgleish, which places Spivak in the American tradition of campaigning journalists, such as Rachel Maddow and Amy Goodman. Dalgleish argues Donald Trump’s MAGA movement has adopted Nazi propaganda techniques. Newspaper articles from the period are included - which cover Spivak’s arrest for supposed libel against ‘radio priest’ Father Coughlin, the terrorist actions of the Christian Front and other Nazis - and reveal the historical precedent of what happens when the press are viewed as ‘the enemy of the people.’