About this episode

Rachel Maddow and Steven J. Ross discuss the rise of white supremacy and antisemitism in the US and the historical context of fighting hate groups.

Emmy Award winning MS NOW host Rachel Maddow and Pulitzer Prize finalist Steven J. Ross join us for an urgent conversation about the new threat of white supremacy and antisemitism in the US, and what the rise and fall of hate groups in the wake of WWII can teach us about fighting it — and Ross' new book, The Secret War Against Hate: American Resistance to Antisemitism and White Supremacy . The American myth of a steady march toward tolerance and freedom has been shattered in the last decade by a rising tide of bigotry and antisemitism. But the truth is that the forces of hate in America have been around for a long time. In her hit podcast Ultra and her #1 bestselling book Prequel , Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the fringes of our politics for the better part of a century. And in The Secret War Against Hate , Steven J. Ross tells the story of the antifascist heroes who rose up after WWII to stop the proliferation of hate groups who aimed to "finish the job Hitler had begun" on American soil. How can we stop racism and anti-Semitism in America today? What does our history tells us about what works in this battle…

People in this episode

Host: Rachel Maddow

Guest: Steven J. Ross

Topics covered

• antisemitism
• white supremacy
• American history
• hate groups
• resistance
• fascism

Keywords

• hate
• bigotry
• American politics
• antifascism
• WWII
• tolerance
• freedom

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Secret War Against Hate: American Resistance to Antisemitism and White Supremacy, Ultra, Prequel

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