Axis America
$2.50
By
PUTNAM
THIS book, which bears the subtitle ‘Hitler Plans Our Future,’is a compendium of Nazi and Fascist writings about the United States, and is preceded by a brief survey of the thinkers of varying quality who have influenced the Nazi world outlook — Nietzsche, Hegel, Moller van den Bruck, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Gohineau. Much of the cited material is ludicrous in its distorted caricatures of American life; perhaps the best specimen in this connection is the following outpouring of an Italian named Pierro Pellicano: ’From the dark lair of the plutocrats has come the order to establish a Communist regime in America. Roosevelt is the court fool in that assembly of illiterates. He wears the Communist halo, the better to dominate a defenseless and unhappy people.’ The author is perhaps inclined to exaggerate the effectiveness of the abusive writings which he cites; the few Americans who have read them would have been amused and disgusted, rather than converted to the gospel of Fascism. More serious, perhaps, is the German technique of propaganda in South America, which is discussed at some length. There is also a good analysis of the German short-wave radio messages to America since the beginning of the war.
W. H. O.