“Radioactive: The Father Coughlin Story” Study Guide
Compiled by Andrew Lapin
Ep. 1: In the Beginning…
Details of Father Coughlin’s early life come from “Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, the Father of Hate Radio,” by Don Warren. The book is now out of print, but some copies are for sale on Amazon. (Here’s a C-SPAN interview of Warren discussing his book.)
The “Boomtown” era of Detroit’s history is chronicled at the Detroit Historical Society.
Information on Henry Ford comes from the three-part biography “Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company”; “Ford: Expansion and Challenge”; and “Ford: Decline and Rebirth,” by Allan Nevins and Frank Ernest Hill (currently out of print).
Additional information on Henry Ford’s antisemitism and lasting legacy in Detroit comes from “Ten Questions for Henry Ford,” a new documentary film directed by Andy Kirshner; and from “Reams of Hate: The Legacy of Henry Ford’s Antisemitic Newspaper,” a lecture by Catherine Cangany.
Ep. 2: Radio Days
Learn more about radio’s earliest days in “Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States,” by Michele Hilmes.
More information about John Brinkley, quack doctor and radio pioneer, can be found in “Nuts!,” a documentary film directed by Penny Lane, currently available for rental.
Ep. 3: The Sound of America
Wallace Stegner’s quotes about Father Coughlin’s voice come from an essay in “The Aspirin Age: 1919-1941: The Essential Events of American Life in the Chaotic Years Between Two World Wars,” currently out of print, but some copies are available on Amazon.
Ruth Mugglebee’s quotes come from her fawning biography of Father Coughlin, “Father Coughlin of the Shrine of the Little Flower,” currently out of print and not worth reading.
Hear more of Norman Thomas in this famous 1961 debate he conducted with onetime presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, “Socialism vs. Capitalism.”
Ep. 4: Driving the Money Changers From the Temple
Additional Father Coughlin biographical information comes from “American Experience: The Radio Priest,” a 1988 PBS documentary directed by Irv Drasnin.
Read more firsthand accounts of the Great Depression in “Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression,” by Studs Terkel.
Ep. 5: His Cross to Bear
More information about Guy Stern’s life, including his WWII service as a “Ritchie Boy,” can be found in his memoir, “Invisible Ink.”
More information on the “Judeo-Bolshevism” conspiracy theory can be found in “A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism,” by Paul Hanebrink.
Additional information on the FDR campaign and the Bonus Army scandal can be found in “The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right,” by Sally Denton.
Audio of “everyday Americans” responding to the New Deal can be found in “Dear Mr. President,” digitized at the Library of Congress.
More audio of Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. explaining the Gold Standard can be found online courtesy of the Detroit Historical Society.
Read the full text of General Johnson’s 1935 denunciation of Father Coughlin.
Ep. 6: Social Justice
Additional information about Huey Long comes from “Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin & the Great Depression,” by Alan Brinkley.
“Social Justice” magazine and other campaign materials, along with clips from Father Coughlin’s radio episodes, can be found online at the digitized Father Coughlin Archives at the University of Detroit-Mercy.
Also referenced in the episode is “It Can’t Happen Here,” by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1935.
Additional information about the Vatican’s geopolitical response to World War II can be found in “Vatican Secret Diplomacy: Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII,” by Charles Gallagher.
Ep. 7: Sedition
Additional information about the Christian Front can be found in the new book “Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front,” by Charles Gallagher; and in “Under Cover,” by John Roy Carlson (the latter currently out of print).
More information on the German-American Bund’s pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden can be found in the Oscar-nominated documentary short film “A Night At The Garden,” directed by Marshall Curry.
The full audio of Rabbi Stephen Wise’s radio responses to Father Coughlin can be found courtesy of the American Jewish Archives at Hebrew Union College: 1935, 1938 and 1939.
The sound collage of Krystallnacht, by Ketzel Levine, is available on NPR.
Ep. 8: The Ghost of Royal Oak
For more on how Metro Detroit’s Jewish community thrived in the decades following Father Coughlin’s dark period, consult “The Jewish Community of Metro Detroit: 1945-2005,” by Barry Stiefel.
“The Plot Against America,” a 2004 novel by Philip Roth, explores more of the key figures in the America First Committee. A 2020 HBO adaptation written by David Simon is now streaming on HBO Max.
More information about the destructive impact of social media algorithms and information bubbles can be found in “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy,” by Cathy O’Neil; and in the podcast series “Rabbit Hole,” from The New York Times.
Two other major inspirations for this series in their discussions of how dangerous ideas can be embraced by the public are “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,” by Hannah Arendt; and “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,” by Jason Stanley.
