Description

On January 13 1940 FBI agents burst into the homes and offices of seventeen members of the Christian Front seizing guns ammunition and homemade bombs J Edgar Hoovers charges were incendiary the group he alleged was planning to incite a revolution and install a temporary dictatorship in order to stamp out Jewish and Communist influence in the United States

In Nazis of Copley Square Charles Gallagher provides a crucial missing chapter in the history of the American far right The men of the Christian Front imagined themselves as crusaders fighting for the spiritual purification of the nation and they were hardly alone in their beliefs The front traced its origins to vibrant global Catholic theological movements of the early twentieth century such as the Mystical Body of Christ and Catholic Action The fronts antiSemitism was inspired by Sunday sermons and by lay leaders openly espousing fascist and Nazi beliefs

Gallagher chronicles the evolution of the front the transatlantic cloakanddagger intelligence operations that subverted it and the mainstream political and religious leaders who shielded the fronts activities from scrutiny Nazis of Copley Square is a grim tale of faith perverted to violent ends and a warning for those who hope to curb the spread of farright ideologies today