Monday, January 10, 2022

Virtual Author Talk: Charles R. Gallagher

We hope you’ll join us for our first author talk of 2022, with Dr. Charles R. Gallagher, S.J., author of the gripping new book, Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front. This virtual event is presented in partnership with the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Boston Public Library. 

In Nazis of Copley Square, Dr. Gallagher provides a crucial forgotten chapter in the history of the American far right, whose adherents conspired to overthrow the government and formed an alliance with Hitler. The members of the Christian Front imagined themselves as crusaders fighting for the spiritual purification of the nation, under assault from godless Communism, and they were hardly alone in their beliefs. The front traced its origins to vibrant global Catholic theological movements of the early twentieth century, and their anti-Semitism was inspired by Sunday sermons and by lay leaders openly espousing fascist and Nazi beliefs.

Dr. Gallagher chronicles the evolution of the front, the transatlantic cloak-and-dagger intelligence operations that subverted it, and the mainstream political and religious leaders who shielded the front’s activities from scrutiny. Nazis of Copley Square is a grim tale of faith perverted to violent ends and a lesson for those who oppose the spread of far-right ideologies today. Dr. Gallagher also examines the forces that enabled it to take root in Boston; Nazis of Copley Square has been called "a searing examination of how a city―where for nearly four centuries the phrase ‘cradle of liberty’ has slipped effortlessly off the tongue with a distinct Boston accent―played host to a group whose leading figures spoke favorably of Nazi Germany.”

Charles R. Gallagher, S.J., is Associate Professor of History at Boston College. His scholarly interests include American Catholicism, papal diplomacy, international relations, the Holocaust, and intelligence history. In 2017 he was the William J. Lowenberg Memorial Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

To register for this free online event, please visit: https://hubs.americanancestors.org/copley-square-nazis


Author Talks Committee
State Library of Massachusetts


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