This book is a biography on the late Gerald L.K. Smith and is the culmination of over a decade of research on this controversial figure. Glen Jeansonne is to be commended for this book. He is really a historian's historian, in that he probed every available archive to compile this biography. Jeansonne admits that he spent ten months of fulltime work in the University of Michigan archives to uncover anything he could to illuminate Smith's life. He waded through 10,000 pages of FBI files to turn up new information on Smith as well. I've spent some time myself probing through dusty boxes in an archive, so I can appreciate the effort Jeansonne went through. This exhaustive research gives a full account of Smith's career as a demagogue, an anti-Communist crusader, a strident anti-Semite, and a builder of religious shrines.

The book traces Smith's life from his humble beginnings as a poor farm boy who was a descendent of a long line of preachers up to his retirement in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he built a statue of Christ and oversaw the construction and presentation of "The Passion Play", which still runs to this day. What comes across most strongly in this book is the intense energy that Smith had throughout his life. He graduated from Valparaiso in less than three years. While this may not seem significant, during this time he held down several jobs and also preached at several congregations during this time. This boundless energy lasted until the end of his life, as Smith ran numerous anti-Communist organizations, made endless speeches, and produced enough tracts and pamphlets to fill a stadium. Jeansonne says Smith's output eclipsed both Toynbee and the Durants, a notable achievement, to be sure! I especially enjoyed the full account of Smith's alliance with Charles Coughlin and Francis Townsend in an attempt to unseat Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. It was during his tenure with the Union party that Smith became a national figure, and he coasted on this acclaim for years afterwards.

Smith's primary allure was his oratory, which was so extraordinary that he outdid some of the greatest orators in American history. Huey Long, who employed Smith to proselytize for his Share the Wealth program, quickly recognized Smith was a better speaker then he. H.L. Mencken wrote that Smith was better than William Jennings Bryan, Robert Lafollette, Billy Sunday, and a host of other speakers. Smith even upstaged Coughlin at the Union party convention; an impressive feat when one considers that Coughlin had the largest radio audience in American history. George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, wrote that he would walk miles to hear Smith speak. Jeansonne points out that while Smith's oratory was impressive, it seldom moved many to sustained action. Smith's primary goal with his oratory was to win converts to his own cause and help build his mailing list. Although Smith did wield some power with his voice, his attempts to turn this power into political influence largely failed. Smith had a canny way of turning powerful people who initially wanted to help him, against him. He managed to alienate Douglas MacArthur, Henry Ford, Sr., and Charles Lindbergh, which led to Smith's rapid expulsion to the fringes of political life. His anti-Semitism didn't help, either. Smith once called Eisenhower a "Swedish Jew", and he had a tendency to call anyone he didn't like a Jew or a Communist.

Jeansonne intersperses his book with attempts to discover why Smith was the way he was. Jeansonne seems to think that Smith's stern religious upbringing made his value system so rigid that he saw any attempts at change as an attack upon his own values. Even into old age, when many people tend to moderate their views to some extent, Smith was as vitriolic as ever. His attacks on Jews escalated into the world of bizarre fantasy, and his paranoia reached epic proportions, as Smith saw conspiracies against him and America under every stone.

The biggest downfall with the book is the choppy way it was put together. You can tell that some of the chapters were articles before becoming part of this book. The book really should have been edited better, as there are several repetitive sections that should have been removed. Highly recommended for someone interested in depression-era politics or far right movements.

I read this book for a history class. It was my favorite read of the semester. The author has a good style that keeps your attention, but really that's not hard to do when detailing Mr. Long's life. His story could be a great novel - truth can indeed be stranger than fiction. Huey came very close to becoming President of the U.S. If he had (you will have to read why he did not) we would probably all be living in a very different America today. This book is a good commentary on human nature, too. In this country people think that we could never be controlled by a demagogue, like Germany was under Hitler, for instance. Long's story proves that indeed Americans CAN be duped - we are not special! Highly recommnened for student and lay person alike!