Dr. Bradley Hart reminisces time as Feather editor, journey to ‘Hitler’s American Friends’ release

In a struggle against tyranny, the Allies focused efforts on dismantling the empires of Axis countries in Europe and Asia. As Nazi occupation spread across Europe, Allied forces thwarted their plans for world domination, and restored peace to the war-torn country.

Many do not know that American Nazis hailed the tyrannical government, spreading the words and plans of the regime to American listeners and readers. FC alumnus and former Feather staffer, Dr. Bradley Hart investigates ‘Hitler’s American Friends’ in his most recent book of the same name.

Dr. Bradley Hart renowned Fresno State professor, author, and second ever digital Feather editor-in-chief, talks about the impact of his experience at FCS. Time he invested in The Feather helped build a foundation for his career.

“I was editor-in-chief during the early 2000s when FCS still had a print edition (newspaper),” Dr. Hart said. “This was a transitional period when we were first moving into the web and it was my job to help navigate that transition and also produce a great print product. My time on The Feather most definitely helped my writing ability. I learned how to synthesize, research and gather information and how to take that information and accurately transition it into a presentable form.”

Dr. Hart discusses his post high school adventures as he studied abroad achieving a Ph.D., two bachelor’s degrees, and a Master of Letters and Modern History. His years of travel and research then ultimately led him to writing his most recent book.

“I did my undergrad at Fresno State gaining a bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy; I double majored,” Hart said. “From there I went to Scotland where I lived in the UK for a number of years. I did a master of letters (MLit) and modern history at the University of Saint Andrews then I went directly from there to the University of Cambridge where I got my Ph.D. in history.”

Although often kept busy with his writing, research, and four journalism classes at Fresno State, Dr. Hart also enjoys playing golf when he can find the time.

“I’ve been writing my book, and I’m an assistant professor at Fresno State in the journalism department, so there is a continuity in my career in that sense,” Hart said. “I am a full time professor and I generally teach four classes a semester. I also enjoy golfing but haven’t had much time to lately.”

Journalism professor Dr. Hart talks about a few mentors that have assisted him along the way through his schooling journey and professional career. The relationships formed will last many years into the future.

“Mr. (Greg) Stobbe for sure, during my time on The Feather as editor in chief. He was always getting me involved and pushing me beyond my limits,” Dr. Hart said. “Certainly, my Ph.D. supervisor, Richard J. Evans as well. It’s a very unique relationship that Ph.D. students have with their supervisors. He really demonstrated academic skills and honest feedback that was very useful for me.”

Feather staffer Annaleise Anderson interviews former Feather editor-in-chief about his recently published book.

Dr. Hart gives perspective into why he first decided to write Hitler’s American Friends and the four-year journey to writing it. He said writers sometimes come up with great book ideas but lack quality resources. 

“I’ve always been interested in this topic,” Hart said. “I wrote my thesis paper on relations between the United States, Britain and Germany in the 1920s and 30s. I was looking specifically at how scientific conferences became venues for political ideas to spread. So as part of that I started seeing interesting connections between the Third Reich and the United States. Being an historian is weird because you can get a really good idea but it just doesn’t pan out because there isn’t enough information available.”

Information and initial book ideas can come from variety of sources. Hart tells about the beginning of his exploration for his first book George Pit-Rivers and the Nazis. 

“This initial material that I uncovered was in a guy’s attic,” Hart said. “It was in his father’s papers who was a Nazi sympathizer and wrote letters to Hitler and received letters from the German embassy. With those I found letters to American figures.  All the letters were really the impetus for the book.

“The research for this really started at Stanford university,” Hart continued. “There’s a place called the Hoover Institute that is a very large library. It was there I got most of my information on the American side. From there I spent two summers in the United Kingdom exploring their recently declassified information in national archives and a couple other archives. After that I went a couple of strange places, like Wichita, Kansas, and a place called Liberty, Texas, which is out in the bayou country, and Bethel College.”

Three years of travel and a year of writing led to Dr. Hart’s publication of Hitler’s American Friends, Oct. 2. Hart expresses his thoughts about the feedback he received so far and the importance of a book highlighting the dark aspects of America’s past.

“The response to this book has been interesting and there hasn’t been a lot of criticism” Hart said. “I think because it’s an important part of America’s history. I think this is something people need to know about, history isn’t just the good parts that make us comfortable. In some ways the parts that trouble us or make us feel uncomfortable are really the parts that we need to look at and talk about a little more.”

After a period of strange looks and questioning eyebrows caused by his controversial topic, Hart reveals details about the personal validation he received since the issue of his book.

“Certainly I do get some odd looks when  tell people what I work on, but I think now that the book is out I do have more legitimacy,” Dr. Hart said. “People ask what you do and telling them you work on American Nazis immediately causes them to think you’re weird, however this has since subsided.”

Hart reveals insight to about few of the big takeaways from his book and why this information and story is important to all Americans. Hart believes that knowing more about controversies in our history can help the country not return to them.

“The primary thing is the shining of a light on support of the Third Reich, a very evil ideology, and how it was more widespread in this country than most people truly appreciate,” Dr. Hart said. “I think it’s important for us recognize this part of our history so we don’t return to it in a sense. My book is separated into seven main chapters ranging from the German-American Bund wanting to be like Hitler to a popular radio host who proudly supported the Nazis, and the business community who thought Nazi Germany was a good place to do business and make money.”

“…when Bradley W. Hart first started researching the history of Nazi sympathy in the United States a few years ago, he was… https://t.co/xCFkLfIlJM

— Al McCoskey (@ald_mcc) October 14, 2018

Learning about some troubling parts of our history can be important according to Hart as he discusses how he specifically wrote and published his book to target a wide public audience.

“Although the temptation is there for those with a Ph.D. to write academically for other scholars, I chose not to do that,” Dr. Hart said. “I really wanted to get a mainstream publisher to make sure this story was told and talked about. It is so far doing very well according to the numbers. I think this story is especially crucial for young people to acknowledge so we never return to such a time.”

As Dr. Hart comes off the excitement of his recent release, he thinks about some other goals he hopes to achieve in his career. A passionate historian who enjoys traveling and teaching on this topic looks forward to future lecturing opportunities.

“One of the more fun things of being an historian is traveling to fun places and some not so fun places and exploring both,” Hart said. “I’d like to continue talking to people about this and am going to be doing a lot of lecturing all over the country, which is exciting. I also think I have at least one more book in me; I’m feeling a bit tired right now so I might be a bit pessimistic.”

Dr. Bradley shares a preview of his idea for another book featuring people who lived through these experiences and are still alive today.

“I think I’d like to do something on ‘Isolationism’,” Hart said. “This was a political movement of the 1920s and 30s that didn’t want the US to get involved in anything overseas, let alone WWII.

“I think there’s important stories to be told there, like why average citizens rather than policy makers started getting involved in this stuff,” Hart continued. “Looking at how people came to those views and how they acted based on them and what lead to the extremes and how those views manifested in their lives. I would like to do more work on what happen to people after all of this happened in the late 1950s, and 60s all the way up till now.”

Dr. Bradley Hart’s new book, Hitler’s American Friends, is available for purchase on Amazon.

This author can be reached via email.

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