From Publishers Weekly
Although Wallace (Who Killed Kurt Cobain?) is a recipient of Rolling Stone's Award for Investigative Journalism and appears to have done much primary research, he delivers a highly speculative rehash of material handled much better in A. Scott Berg's Lindbergh, Robert Lacey's Ford: The Man and the Machine and such seminal studies as Charles Higham's American Swastika. Wallace tries and fails to sensationalize well-known facts about the parochial American fifth column of the late 1930s and early '40s, a bungling movement of which Ford and Lindbergh were among the most public faces. Wallace sees a conspiracy in what he presents as Ford's pro-Nazi partnership with Lindbergh: a dark and powerful alliance designed to hinder the Allies at every turn. In fact, the two men were far more naive than effectual in their attempts to prop up American isolationism before Pearl Harbor. And Lindbergh, who counted Harry Guggenheim among his closest friends, found Ford's hatred of Jews repugnant. Once war was declared, both Lindbergh and Ford helped the Allied effort. Lindbergh helped develop the Corsair and later, as a "civilian observer," flew more than 25 combat missions over the South Pacific. At the same time, Ford (with Lindbergh's help, and after a few false starts) became the leading manufacturer of the B-24 bomber. Were Ford and Lindbergh half-witted dupes of Nazi propaganda before the war? Undoubtedly. Were they Nazi agents either before or after the start of hostilities? Wallace fails to make the case. 13 photos. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., author of The Age of Roosevelt
"What a drama! ...reminds us that the destiny of the republic hung in the balance in the Great Debate."


Review
"What a drama! ...reminds us that the destiny of the republic hung in the balannce in the Great Debate."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh have long been exalted as two of the greatest American icons of the twentieth century. From award-winning journalist Max Wallace comes groundbreaking and astonishing revelations about the poisonous effect these two so-called American heroes had on Western democracy. In his wide-ranging investigation, Wallace goes further than any other historian to expose how Ford and Lindbergh -- acting in league with the Nazis -- almost brought democratic Europe to the verge of extinction. With unprecedented access to declassified FBI and military intelligence files, Wallace reveals how the close friendship and ideological bond between automotive pioneer Ford and aviator Lindbergh culminated in an abuse of power that helped strengthen Hitler's regime and undermined the Allied war effort. Wallace traces Henry Ford's ties to Nazi Germany back as far as the 1920s, presenting compelling evidence of a financial paper trail proving that Ford subsidized the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, who described Ford as "my inspiration." For the first time, the genesis of Ford's notorious anti-Semitism is uncovered: The American Axis proves that Ford's private secretary and lifelong confidant was a German spy, who channeled his employer's Jew-baiting crusades to further the cause of the Third Reich.

Lindbergh's own anti-Semitism and white supremacist views captured the attention of the Nazis, who soon manipulated him in their clandestine Fifth Column efforts. As the first unauthorized biographer to gain access to the Lindbergh archives, Wallace paints a substantially more chilling portrait of Lindbergh's prewar activities than any previous historian and produces new evidence that the Nazis secretly plotted to install Lindbergh as the leader of the movement to keep America out of World War II. The most controversial corporate investigation since IBM and the Holocaust, the book reveals that the Ford Motor Company's military and political complicity in the Third Reich war effort was considerably stronger than the company has acknowledged and that a U.S. Army postwar investigation concluded that the company had become "an arsenal of Nazism." Wallace disputes a recent internal investigation into the use of slave labor at Ford's German plant during World War II -- which company officials claimed as a vindication of its wartime activities -- and reveals that corporate president Edsel Ford was about to be indicted by the U.S. government for "trading with the enemy" at the time of his 1943 death. The American Axis is not only a mesmerizing, cautionary tale, but a compelling historical expose.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Although Wallace (Who Killed Kurt Cobain?) is a recipient of Rolling Stone's Award for Investigative Journalism and appears to have done much primary research, he delivers a highly speculative rehash of material handled much better in A. Scott Berg's Lindbergh, Robert Lacey's Ford: The Man and the Machine and such seminal studies as Charles Higham's American Swastika. Wallace tries and fails to sensationalize well-known facts about the parochial American fifth column of the late 1930s and early '40s, a bungling movement of which Ford and Lindbergh were among the most public faces. Wallace sees a conspiracy in what he presents as Ford's pro-Nazi partnership with Lindbergh: a dark and powerful alliance designed to hinder the Allies at every turn. In fact, the two men were far more naive than effectual in their attempts to prop up American isolationism before Pearl Harbor. And Lindbergh, who counted Harry Guggenheim among his closest friends, found Ford's hatred of Jews repugnant. Once war was declared, both Lindbergh and Ford helped the Allied effort. Lindbergh helped develop the Corsair and later, as a "civilian observer," flew more than 25 combat missions over the South Pacific. At the same time, Ford (with Lindbergh's help, and after a few false starts) became the leading manufacturer of the B-24 bomber. Were Ford and Lindbergh half-witted dupes of Nazi propaganda before the war? Undoubtedly. Were they Nazi agents either before or after the start of hostilities? Wallace fails to make the case. 13 photos. (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In the days preceding World War II, two well-known Americans became entangled in the emerging German political presence, causing controversy back in the States. Journalist Wallace examines how Charles Lindbergh's support for Nazi militarism and U.S. isolationism and Henry Ford's business dealings with Germany tarnished their idealized images. Drawing on original sources, Wallace brings out some pertinent connections between the two men's anti-Semitism and their ties with the rising Nazi regime. He also describes how the images of both men were rehabilitated as the decades passed. However, the double biographical treatment can be awkward, and the text veers sharply between Ford and Lindbergh and their associated chains of events. This results in a confusing set of time lines and a sprawling breadth of information. The book's theme becomes tenuous, as the men's real lives diverged considerably, but Wallace concludes powerfully with an investigation into the mostly profitable consequences of Ford's wartime production in Germany. For a more focused account of this aspect of American history, see Edwin Black's IBM and the Holocaust. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Elizabeth Morris, Davenport Univ. Lib., Kalamazoo, MI Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews