"Fear Itself" is a complete thematic and organizational revision of Stephen Fox’s earlier book, "America’s Invisible Gulag." Additional chapters, for example, cover the story of alleged Pearl Harbor spies (not Japanese) and the deportation of Germans from Latin America.
In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the only thing Americans had to fear at home was fear itself, a dread nurtured most ironically by President Franklin Roosevelt himself, who had warned the country in 1933 against succumbing to panic.
Weaving together first-person narratives and government documents in the unique study, award-winning author Stephen Fox tells the inside story of the internment and exclusion of thousands of German Americans during the Second World War. Officials sought to protect the country from spies and saboteurs, but they strayed far beyond. Soon, political and military leaders, bureaucrats, informants, and suspects became trapped in a dehumanizing web of mutual arrogance, distrust, fear, and panic, where internal security decisions turned on the personality or character of suspects rather than their danger to the country.
Fear Itself is crucial to understanding how the United States stepped so easily into the anxious post-9/11 world of Patriot Acts and Homeland Security: color-coded terror warnings, ethnic profiling, preventive detention, open-ended incarceration—even for those no longer considered dangerous—abuse of due process and habeas corpus, unchecked executive power, rendition, and the loss of citizenship.
In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the only thing Americans had to fear at home was fear itself, a dread nurtured most ironically by President Franklin Roosevelt himself, who had warned the country in 1933 against succumbing to panic.
Weaving together first-person narratives and government documents in the unique study, award-winning author Stephen Fox tells the inside story of the internment and exclusion of thousands of German Americans during the Second World War. Officials sought to protect the country from spies and saboteurs, but they strayed far beyond. Soon, political and military leaders, bureaucrats, informants, and suspects became trapped in a dehumanizing web of mutual arrogance, distrust, fear, and panic, where internal security decisions turned on the personality or character of suspects rather than their danger to the country.
Fear Itself is crucial to understanding how the United States stepped so easily into the anxious post-9/11 world of Patriot Acts and Homeland Security: color-coded terror warnings, ethnic profiling, preventive detention, open-ended incarceration—even for those no longer considered dangerous—abuse of due process and habeas corpus, unchecked executive power, rendition, and the loss of citizenship.
