Christopher Mathias on To Catch a Fascist

My guest this week in part two of a two-part show is Christopher Mathias, a journalist with a long career of covering the far right, including at HuffPost, The Guardian, MSNBC and Zeteo. His investigative reporting has charted the role of racist and often violent nativist groups like the Proud Boys in the politics and policies of the GOP. He’s out now with a remarkable book titled To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right which profiles the covert work of anti-fascist activists by way of a definitional history, case studies and a review of the tactics and traditions of the reactionary, racist, right from the Ku Klux Klan to the present, and perhaps most helpfully, their place in Trumpworld. In addition to charting the work of individual and organized anti-fascists, it presents a parallel narrative of the absurdly cartoonish if violent and dangerous work of multiple fascist groups in the context of the cartoonish, violent and dangerous ascendency of the Trumpist Republican Party.  To Catch a Fascist, out from Atria Books, is not just a sociological study, current affairs book, and a corrective to the mainstream narrative but an exciting, engaging and dramatically rendered adventure story too. In this half hour we talk about the ethical code of anti-fascist political work, about the successful outing of dozens of organized radical right members, and Mathias’s own personal bravery in documenting these struggles. Music: Hot Nights by DreamAudioThe views expressed in this program are those of its presenter and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the values of the Community of Writers or its Board of Directors.