An Evening with Rachel Maddow

Presented by Oblong Books in partnership with the Bardavon

Bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, RACHEL MADDOW will discuss the topics in her latest book, instant #1 New York Times bestseller, PREQUEL: An American Fight Against Fascism with University of Pennsylvania Professor Anthea Butler.

Inspired by her research for her #1 Apple podcast, Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, from MSNBC, Prequel charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule. That effort worked—tongue and groove—alongside an ultra-right paramilitary movement that stockpiled bombs and weapons and trained for mass murder and violent insurrection.

At the same time, a handful of extraordinary activists and journalists were tracking the scheme, exposing it even as it was unfolding. In 1941 the U.S. Department of Justice finally made a frontal attack, identifying the key plotters, finding their backers, and prosecuting dozens in federal court.

None of it went as planned…

Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Award–winning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, as well as the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drift and Blowout, and the New York Times bestselling co-author of Bag Man. Maddow received a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University and earned her doctorate in political science at Oxford University. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.

Anthea Butler is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social thought and Chair of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. A historian of African American and American religion, Professor Butler’s research and writing spans African American religion and history, race, politics, Evangelicalism, gender and sexuality, media, and popular culture. A recipient of the 2022 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion, Professor Butler is an op-ed contributor for MSNBC, and the author of White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America. Butler’s articles have been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, and The Guardian.