Hitler’s Aristocrats: The Secret Power Players in Britain and America Who Supported the Nazis, 1923–1941

In this colorful yet familiar account, historian Ronald (The Ambassador) spotlights the “influencers and enablers who actively worked toward blinding Germany, Great Britain, and the United States to what Hitler and his fellow criminals were doing.” She profiles fascist sympathizers both well-known and obscure, including Princess Stephanie zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, a Hungarian divorcée who was on the payrolls of both Hitler and Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail; American ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy; and the Duke of Windsor. Also discussed are the American Liberty League’s plan for wealthy industrialists to overthrow President Roosevelt and install “a man on a white horse” who would end the New Deal, and the successful cultivation of author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s distant cousin, aviator Laura Houghtaling Ingalls, as an unregistered foreign agent for Germany. While Ronald convincingly details a great deal of sympathy for Nazi Germany and fascism in general among English-speaking elites, she focuses on summarizing previously known connections, rather than exposing how deep, widespread, and enduring these viewpoints were. Though Ronald’s insights into how quickly anti-democratic views can take root in the popular attitudes of the wealthy are relevant today, this case study doesn’t break much new ground. (Mar.)