Bradley W. Hart's book explores the history of American individuals and movements sympathetic to Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, and does not shrink from addressing their contemporary resonance. The result is a comprehensive catalogue of pro-Nazi figures in America, including fascinating coverage of some lesser-known individuals. The narrative style makes the book a pleasure to read, but the focus on leaders leaves the book with comparatively little to say about the motivations and experiences of the ordinary Americans who participated in movements like America First and the German-American Bund.

Hart argues that we ought to divide the people he describes as Hitler's American friends into two camps: those working directly for the German government to sow disinformation and confusion in an attempt to keep the United States out of World War II and those who voluntarily aligned themselves with the Nazis due to a mixture of motives (6–9). Of the latter groups, Hart argues that they were mainly held together by the glue of antisemitism (17). As his empirical chapters show, the desire to keep the United States out of the European war was also a strong motivating factor for many of these groups.

Perhaps the most valuable contribution of this book is its coverage of movements and personalities little known to the general reader. The chapter on the Silver Legion and its leader William Dudley Pelley is particularly good. Pelley, a Hollywood scriptwriter turned mystic, led a movement that sought to establish a Christian Commonwealth, provide a universal basic income, and re-enslave African Americans. As Hart explains, one of the appeals of such movements was their syncretic combination of Nazism and Americanism. The Silver Legion's official anthem was the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” whereas the German-American Bund famously displayed both American and Nazi flags at their rallies.

As Hart shows, the Nazi government usually wanted as little as possible to do with such movements. In fact, these movements might best be described less as Hitler's American friends and more as Hitler's American fans. Prior to the Nazi declaration of war on the United States, Berlin saw little benefit in interfering in American politics, lest it create a pretext for war. Berlin even threatened to strip citizenship from German immigrants participating in such movements. By the time war broke out, movements like the Bund and America First were petering out, discredited by geopolitical reality.

Hart is keen to stress—and perhaps somewhat overstates—the threat posed by Hitler's American friends to the US government. He argues that only an “uneasy combination of wise statesmanship and sheer luck” stopped a nightmare scenario in which “the US would never have entered World War II, Britain would have fallen under Nazi occupation and, ultimately, a version of National Socialism would have taken root in the United States” (17). He even compares the German American Bund to the Nazi Party, pointing out that although the Bund had few members, so did the Nazis before they seized power. “Who was to say that under the right circumstances [the Bund] could not pull off a similar feat?” (33). Given the enormous differences between the political and security situations in the United States and Weimer Germany, this analogy strains credulity.

Hart concludes that despite Hitler's American friends posing “a series of major existential threats” to the American political system, they “never stood much of a chance” due to “courageous stands by American leaders” (236). Although a clear and laudable presentist point is being made here—America's political leaders should stand up to the Far Right—the point is somewhat dubious as a matter of historical fact. As Hart himself demonstrates, Hitler's American friends rarely managed to transcend their marginality, and there was a definite ceiling on how much support they could attain. The incompetence and infighting of many of the movement's leaders, plus the fact that Japan and Germany declared war on the United States in 1941, drove further nails into their political coffin. Hitler's American friends may have been existential threats if measured by their goals, but scarcely so if measured by their achievements. The fact that they were never taken seriously by Hitler's government is further testament to their essential marginality.

In sum, Hart has written an interesting book that provides a fine overview of pro-Nazi sentiment in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. It is recommended for those seeking to understand the full spectrum of American support for the Nazis and for its fine writing style.