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American Fuehrer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party
The founder of the American Nazi party and its leader until he was murdered in 1967,George Lincoln Rockwell was one of the most significant extremist strategists and ideologists of the postwar period. His influence has only increased since his death.
A powerful catalyst and innovator, Rockwell broadened his constituency beyond the core Radical Right by articulating White Power politics in terms that were subsequently appropriated by the one-time klansman David Duke. He played a major role in developing Holocaust revisionism, now an orthodoxy of the Far Right. He also helped politicize Christian Identity, America's most influential right-wing religious movement, and welded together an international organization of neo-Nazis. All of these extremist movements continue to thrive today.
Frederick Simonelli's biography of this powerful and enigmatic figure draws on primary sources of extraordinary depth, including declassified FBI files and manuscripts and other materials held by Rockwell's family and associates. The first objective assessment of the American Nazi party and an authoritative study of the roots of neo-nazism, neo-fascism, and White Power extremism in postwar America, American Fuehrer is shocking and absorbing reading.
A powerful catalyst and innovator, Rockwell broadened his constituency beyond the core Radical Right by articulating White Power politics in terms that were subsequently appropriated by the one-time klansman David Duke. He played a major role in developing Holocaust revisionism, now an orthodoxy of the Far Right. He also helped politicize Christian Identity, America's most influential right-wing religious movement, and welded together an international organization of neo-Nazis. All of these extremist movements continue to thrive today.
Frederick Simonelli's biography of this powerful and enigmatic figure draws on primary sources of extraordinary depth, including declassified FBI files and manuscripts and other materials held by Rockwell's family and associates. The first objective assessment of the American Nazi party and an authoritative study of the roots of neo-nazism, neo-fascism, and White Power extremism in postwar America, American Fuehrer is shocking and absorbing reading.
206 pages, Hardcover
First published May 20, 1999
145 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 13, 2008
Not that the discerning reader can't get a lot of good info out of this book but it appears to me that the author went out of his way to portray Rockwell as a loser, a misfit, and someone in need of psychiatric care.
Simonelli somehow managed to get access to much of Rockwells personal correspondences but it seems that he selectively used them to point out instances of turmoil and sadness in Rockwells state of mind. He especially uses Rockwells feelings of despondency about his wife, who was the daughter of the Icelandic ambassador to America, leaving him and taking their children back to Iceland with her. I don't think its a particuarly radical statement for me to say that feeling sad about losing your wife and kids is a sign of being normal. Simonelli somehow manages to twist this into an example of Rockwell being an insane loser.
The other bio of Rockwell, Hate by William Schmaltz, is a far superior and unbiased account of GLR's life and highly recomended. However I can only recomend American Fuehrer to somebody who is researching Rockwell and knows how to read with a discerning eye.
Simonelli somehow managed to get access to much of Rockwells personal correspondences but it seems that he selectively used them to point out instances of turmoil and sadness in Rockwells state of mind. He especially uses Rockwells feelings of despondency about his wife, who was the daughter of the Icelandic ambassador to America, leaving him and taking their children back to Iceland with her. I don't think its a particuarly radical statement for me to say that feeling sad about losing your wife and kids is a sign of being normal. Simonelli somehow manages to twist this into an example of Rockwell being an insane loser.
The other bio of Rockwell, Hate by William Schmaltz, is a far superior and unbiased account of GLR's life and highly recomended. However I can only recomend American Fuehrer to somebody who is researching Rockwell and knows how to read with a discerning eye.
July 13, 2014
There’s no way I can talk about this book without also revisiting a book I previously praised: Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell And The American Nazi Party by William H. Schmaltz. Both books share the same subject, and they came out around the same time. Simonelli’s research was done earlier, however, and Schmaltz cites him in many places, having been given, I believe, the opportunity to read the manuscript before it was in publication. In some ways, that gave Schmaltz an opportunity both to use Simonelli’s research and to improve upon his book in terms of style and currency. I’d be tempted even to call that an unfair advantage, except for the evidence that Simonelli willingly shared his findings with Schmaltz. I read Schmaltz first, and then went to briefly check out Simonelli before writing my own paper on Rockwell, to make sure nothing significant had been missed. My own impression at the time (and this was before I started grad school) was that Schmaltz had, indeed, written the better book, and there was little need to spend time on Simonelli.
Looking over this book again, I’m not so certain I was right. Schmaltz’s book is definitely the more accessible and popular: it’s full of photographs, it has a breezy, fun style, it has much shorter notes. But, it seems to me as if Simonelli has turned out the more successful scholarly study of his subject, hampered only by the apparent lag between most of the interviews and primary source research he did and the late date of publication. This is the more difficult read, and follows a less popular format as a biography (it is written thematically rather than chronologically), but it may actually be more useful in the long run to serious students of the American far right.
George Lincoln Rockwell (1918-1967) is well-known among advocates and students of racism in the United States, but largely forgotten by everyone else. For those who know of him, his name is inseparably linked with the small and ineffective American Nazi Party (ANP) which he founded in the late 1950s, when the appeal of German-style National Socialism was beginning to be felt among the fringes of the extreme right in many countries. Rockwell’s bizarre group may have been more an act of theater than of serious politics: dressed in modified but recognizable Nazi uniforms they would march on the streets of Washington DC and other major American cities, provoking hostile reactions and requiring police protecting in the name of free speech. While some of Rockwell’s supporters may have taken part in violent acts as individuals, the party avoided terrorist tactics and focused on garnering media attention. At a time when some were fighting Civil Rights with lynchings and bombings, the ANP was fighting with demonstrations and speeches.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the founder and leader of this odd cult was a very unique individual. GLR was better-looking than most Nazis, both neo- and otherwise, having a classically Rock-Hudson-esque build and angular, chiseled features. Rockwell was almost certainly smarter and more cultured than any of his followers, and he had a background in design and advertising, so could actually devise much more effective propaganda than most of his racist competitors. Even the idea of embracing Nazism was, for him, as much a publicity stunt as a sincere conviction, although the two seem never to have been far apart in his psyche. Although the modern extreme right eschews his tactics for the most part, having gone over to the typical losers’ strategy of terror and intimidation, he is still extolled as a hero by new generations of White Nationalists, for having articulated so well (and so visually) the message they want to hear. Rockwell is credited with popularizing the term “White Power,” with having reached across the ocean to form the first international Nazi organization (the WUNS, or World Union of National Socialists), and with infiltrating Christian Identity churches with Nazis in the form of ministers.
In the end, of course, his “movement” never consisted of more than a few hundred followers, and perhaps a few thousand interested but inactive readers of his propaganda. His efforts in the electoral realm were pathetic, and his attempt to raise a counter-demonstration to MLK’s March on Washington negligible. He lived most of his life in poverty, in the squalid “barracks” of his Storm Troopers, eking out a survival from occasional donations from lunatic fringe backers and his own mistresses. He died when one of his own former followers decided to shoot him for “betraying” the movement he had created and nurtured.
I suspect that’s why Simonelli had to wait so long to get this published; from a scholarly point of view it’s hard to get people very interested in the obscure and the extreme. Many professors will say “who cares about George Lincoln Rockwell” if he didn’t actually have any impact on the world outside of his own little cabal. Indeed, the professor I turned that paper in to said pretty much exactly that. For that reason, it’s likely that “American Fuehrer” will remain the only good scholarly examination of George Lincoln Rockwell or the American Nazi Party for some time to come.
Looking over this book again, I’m not so certain I was right. Schmaltz’s book is definitely the more accessible and popular: it’s full of photographs, it has a breezy, fun style, it has much shorter notes. But, it seems to me as if Simonelli has turned out the more successful scholarly study of his subject, hampered only by the apparent lag between most of the interviews and primary source research he did and the late date of publication. This is the more difficult read, and follows a less popular format as a biography (it is written thematically rather than chronologically), but it may actually be more useful in the long run to serious students of the American far right.
George Lincoln Rockwell (1918-1967) is well-known among advocates and students of racism in the United States, but largely forgotten by everyone else. For those who know of him, his name is inseparably linked with the small and ineffective American Nazi Party (ANP) which he founded in the late 1950s, when the appeal of German-style National Socialism was beginning to be felt among the fringes of the extreme right in many countries. Rockwell’s bizarre group may have been more an act of theater than of serious politics: dressed in modified but recognizable Nazi uniforms they would march on the streets of Washington DC and other major American cities, provoking hostile reactions and requiring police protecting in the name of free speech. While some of Rockwell’s supporters may have taken part in violent acts as individuals, the party avoided terrorist tactics and focused on garnering media attention. At a time when some were fighting Civil Rights with lynchings and bombings, the ANP was fighting with demonstrations and speeches.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the founder and leader of this odd cult was a very unique individual. GLR was better-looking than most Nazis, both neo- and otherwise, having a classically Rock-Hudson-esque build and angular, chiseled features. Rockwell was almost certainly smarter and more cultured than any of his followers, and he had a background in design and advertising, so could actually devise much more effective propaganda than most of his racist competitors. Even the idea of embracing Nazism was, for him, as much a publicity stunt as a sincere conviction, although the two seem never to have been far apart in his psyche. Although the modern extreme right eschews his tactics for the most part, having gone over to the typical losers’ strategy of terror and intimidation, he is still extolled as a hero by new generations of White Nationalists, for having articulated so well (and so visually) the message they want to hear. Rockwell is credited with popularizing the term “White Power,” with having reached across the ocean to form the first international Nazi organization (the WUNS, or World Union of National Socialists), and with infiltrating Christian Identity churches with Nazis in the form of ministers.
In the end, of course, his “movement” never consisted of more than a few hundred followers, and perhaps a few thousand interested but inactive readers of his propaganda. His efforts in the electoral realm were pathetic, and his attempt to raise a counter-demonstration to MLK’s March on Washington negligible. He lived most of his life in poverty, in the squalid “barracks” of his Storm Troopers, eking out a survival from occasional donations from lunatic fringe backers and his own mistresses. He died when one of his own former followers decided to shoot him for “betraying” the movement he had created and nurtured.
I suspect that’s why Simonelli had to wait so long to get this published; from a scholarly point of view it’s hard to get people very interested in the obscure and the extreme. Many professors will say “who cares about George Lincoln Rockwell” if he didn’t actually have any impact on the world outside of his own little cabal. Indeed, the professor I turned that paper in to said pretty much exactly that. For that reason, it’s likely that “American Fuehrer” will remain the only good scholarly examination of George Lincoln Rockwell or the American Nazi Party for some time to come.
April 18, 2012
I cannot recall the last time I read such a shady hit piece. I bought this book because of its supposed "objectivity;" however, the author (who clearly has no scholarly grip on psychology) theorizes why Rockwell was who he was, while mentioning things of historical interest only in passing.
Simonelli so badly wants to demonize Rockwell that you wonder how faithfully he recorded his interviews and facts. For instance, toward the end of the book, he attempts to point toward Rockwell's ironic use of Christian Identity to influence large masses of people into accepting his racialist perspective. He likens it to the "Odinist Hitler" attempting to use Christian lingo to impress the German people. Calling Hitler an Odinist is so fantastically dishonest and impossible that Simonelli should've been laughed out of his teaching position. Hitler was a Catholic (who likely only believed in a nebulous "Providence" instead of god). Neo-paganism, of which Odinism belongs, didn't even become a noticable social phenomena until at least a decade after Hitler's death. The so-called occult origins and bases of the Third Reich have been so thoroughly discredited that only the tabloids care to write about them.
If you're interested in Rockwell, or fringe groups in general. Read this book. You're stuck with it until a real historian takes up the task.
Simonelli so badly wants to demonize Rockwell that you wonder how faithfully he recorded his interviews and facts. For instance, toward the end of the book, he attempts to point toward Rockwell's ironic use of Christian Identity to influence large masses of people into accepting his racialist perspective. He likens it to the "Odinist Hitler" attempting to use Christian lingo to impress the German people. Calling Hitler an Odinist is so fantastically dishonest and impossible that Simonelli should've been laughed out of his teaching position. Hitler was a Catholic (who likely only believed in a nebulous "Providence" instead of god). Neo-paganism, of which Odinism belongs, didn't even become a noticable social phenomena until at least a decade after Hitler's death. The so-called occult origins and bases of the Third Reich have been so thoroughly discredited that only the tabloids care to write about them.
If you're interested in Rockwell, or fringe groups in general. Read this book. You're stuck with it until a real historian takes up the task.
May 25, 2023
"If fascism ever comes to America, it will be called Americanism".---Huey Long, attributed
George Lincoln Rockwell, founder and Fueherer of the American Nazi Party is one of those strange, minuscule figures in American history who manages to change the course of American politics, like a single rock starting a landslide. In the early 1960s, at a time when Robert Welsh and his John Birch Society had millions of followers, Rockwell, with an estimated number of 25 "Stormtroopers" residing in his Virginia headquarters was the media darling, complete with television documentaries, campus speeches, and the ultimate accolade, a PLAYBOY interview. His success was due to his outrageousness, dressing like "a Hollywood Nazi" and prophetic politics. He sensed the white working class would come to loath the Democratic Party for its civil rights program and turn to the right. Rockwell also had a great feeling for political opportunity, embracing the Nation of Islam's (NOI) call for segregated nations inside the United States and praising Malcolm X. (Rockwell was once Elijah Mohammed's guest at an NOI convention in Chicago.) At the same time, he called the Ku Klux Klan's rejection of Catholics "stupid" since it threw away a valuable constituency. Jews, Blacks, and gays were his personal and political demons. (A divorcee, Rockwell was subject to homophobic attacks himself.) Given all that free publicity, why did the American Nazi Party fail to grow, and die a quick death after Rockwell's assassination at the hands of a disgruntled follower in 1967? Rockwell spoke in the language of German Nationalism, not the folksy fascism of a David Duke (who almost got elected governor of Louisiana!) or the far-right populism of Trump or DeSantis. The Nazi Party's endorsement of the Viet Nam War certainly cost the party potential support among the youth. Some dismiss Rockwell as simply a study in American political psychopathology. But with the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene calling for a "national divorce" along lines of political affiliation, read racial identity, G. L. R. may yet go down in history as the father of twenty-first-century American fascism.
George Lincoln Rockwell, founder and Fueherer of the American Nazi Party is one of those strange, minuscule figures in American history who manages to change the course of American politics, like a single rock starting a landslide. In the early 1960s, at a time when Robert Welsh and his John Birch Society had millions of followers, Rockwell, with an estimated number of 25 "Stormtroopers" residing in his Virginia headquarters was the media darling, complete with television documentaries, campus speeches, and the ultimate accolade, a PLAYBOY interview. His success was due to his outrageousness, dressing like "a Hollywood Nazi" and prophetic politics. He sensed the white working class would come to loath the Democratic Party for its civil rights program and turn to the right. Rockwell also had a great feeling for political opportunity, embracing the Nation of Islam's (NOI) call for segregated nations inside the United States and praising Malcolm X. (Rockwell was once Elijah Mohammed's guest at an NOI convention in Chicago.) At the same time, he called the Ku Klux Klan's rejection of Catholics "stupid" since it threw away a valuable constituency. Jews, Blacks, and gays were his personal and political demons. (A divorcee, Rockwell was subject to homophobic attacks himself.) Given all that free publicity, why did the American Nazi Party fail to grow, and die a quick death after Rockwell's assassination at the hands of a disgruntled follower in 1967? Rockwell spoke in the language of German Nationalism, not the folksy fascism of a David Duke (who almost got elected governor of Louisiana!) or the far-right populism of Trump or DeSantis. The Nazi Party's endorsement of the Viet Nam War certainly cost the party potential support among the youth. Some dismiss Rockwell as simply a study in American political psychopathology. But with the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene calling for a "national divorce" along lines of political affiliation, read racial identity, G. L. R. may yet go down in history as the father of twenty-first-century American fascism.
May 10, 2019
The podcast Behind The Bastards spoke of Rockwell and I found myself wanting to know more. The man popularized holocaust denial in the USA. He led the American Nazi Party. He is a monster. And a broken one at that.
It's one of those books where I had to keep stopping to google bits and pieces. The text gets dense in some places to the point of being overwhelming with names and facts. All the same, so well researched and with so much personal background. Clearly much private correspondence was combed through to provide all sorts of glimpses into Rockwell's bizarre life.
The details around his assassination are also here, and it seems there is some mystery around who really killed him. I would love to know more details about that aspect of Rockwell.
This is one of those short, meaty history books that make you crave more facts about a human being who is absolutely disgusting.
It's one of those books where I had to keep stopping to google bits and pieces. The text gets dense in some places to the point of being overwhelming with names and facts. All the same, so well researched and with so much personal background. Clearly much private correspondence was combed through to provide all sorts of glimpses into Rockwell's bizarre life.
The details around his assassination are also here, and it seems there is some mystery around who really killed him. I would love to know more details about that aspect of Rockwell.
This is one of those short, meaty history books that make you crave more facts about a human being who is absolutely disgusting.
June 30, 2021
Solid biography of perhaps the most delusional loser in American history.
December 6, 2023
I read this for a college paper I was writing on Rockwell. Overall, the book is not terrible and serves as a good introduction to Rockwell and his party.
May 22, 2015
At it's best moments itt serves as a cautionary story about radical right wing zealotry and hate. It isn't particularly well written however and there just isn't much of an overlying theme or thesis. I think hate groups like George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi party deserve a look in a free society in order to study and appreciate our free speech. I wish that this book spent more time studying the 'American' aspect of this fuehrer. I think the readers are far more interested in what conditions allowed an American nazi than they are with the pathetic George Lincoln Rockwell. It's merely a standard biography about a reprehensible human being.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews