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BOOK REVIEWS589 that anti-Semitism was a mortal sin for Catholics. Father Cox attacked Father Coughlin as "Hitler's Hatchet Man" in a fiery speech to a Pittsburgh Rotary Club. Father Coughlin quickly retaliated by writing a letter to Bishop Hugh Boyle purporting to show that Father Cox was "in the pay of the Jews" (p. 188). This was to little avail as Boyle was openly critical of the "misled Catholics" who came under Father Coughlin's influence. Philadelphia had neither a Rice nor a Cox, only the ultra-conservative Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, a great admirer ofMussolini and Franco. But on the issue of anti-Semitism the Cardinal spoke out loud and clear. In a much-applauded pastoral letter of 1938 Dougherty wrote that any Catholic "who discriminates on the basis of race, color, or nationality is not loyal to the Church, is a renegade to the faith and a scandal to fellow members of the Church" (p. 189). Fortunately, the Christian Front in Pennsylvania was a small, ineffective group of disgruntled agitators who were never as serious a threat to the social order as they and their detractors believed. After the wave of criticism created by the arrest of seventeen Christian Fronters in Brooklyn in 1940 the movement rapidly declined in numbers and in influence. It is difficult to do justice to this provocative book in so short a review, but Jenkins has given us a fascinating study of a quarter-century of right-wing extremism in the Keystone state. Charles J.Tull Indiana University South Bend (Emeritus) Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, The Father ofHate Radio. By Donald Warren. (New York: The Free Press, Macmillan Publishing Co. 1996. Pp. Lx, 376. $27.50.) No voice was more readily identifiable on the radio in the United States in the 1930's with the possible exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's than Father Charles E. Coughlin's (1891-1979). It has been said that on a balmy Sunday afternoon one could walk down the streets of many an American city and never miss a word of his weekly radio broadcast. This study by Donald Warren, professor of sociology in Oakland University, has as its goal to relate "the story of hate radio, and its inventor, Charles Edward Coughlin." Coughlin, a Canadian by birth, graduated from the University of St. Michael's College in 191 1 . He joined the Congregation of St. Basil and was ordained to the priesthood in 1916. The young cleric was assigned to teach at Assumption College in Ontario and on weekends assisted at parishes in nearby Michigan. In 1923 he was incardinated into the Diocese of Detroit, where Bishop MichaelJ. Gallagher, his close friend and defender, asked him to build a new parish in suburban Royal Oak, and name it in honor of the newly canonized St. Thérèse of Lisieux,affectionately known as"the Little Flower." In an effort to raise funds for 590BOOK REVIEWS this endeavor he negotiated his first radio broadcast which aired on WJR in Detroit on October 17, 1926. Coughlin's program began as a series of sermons. After the crash of 1929, he spoke to the frustrations of the people, attacking Bolshevism and becoming an "authority" on communism and monetary issues. By 1930, the Columbia Broadcasting Sy-jtem picked up his program nationally. Short-wave carried his mellifluous voice to millions of listeners around the world on "The Golden Hour of the Little Flower." Initially Coughlin was an ardent supporter of Roosevelt, coining the slogan "Roosevelt or Ruin!" After Roosevelt became president, however, he did not look to Royal Oak for advice. Coughlin became disenchanted. In 1934 the priest founded the National Union for Social Justice, and in 1936 established the weekly newspaper SocialJustice. That same year he joined with the Protestant evangelist and anti-Semite Gerald L. K. Smith and with Dr. Francis Townsend of California to found the anti-Roosevelt Union Party. Coughlin's theatrics during the campaign, ripping off his Roman collar and calling the President "Franklin Double-Crossing Roosevelt" and a liar and a betrayer shocked Catholics and nonCatholics alike. Even the Vatican was disturbed with his activities and cautioned Bishop Gallagher, who was supportive of...

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