The State Between Us

TSBU takes on the Regnery family tree, the branches of which take us to the America First Committee, the US Conservative Revolution, and the absurd but influential Alt-Right. The Regneries rubbed shoulders with the Who's Who of the 20th century's most important fascists, reactionaries, Yale spies, and NAM big shots since breaking rich in Kansas City, and didn't stop when they made it to DC.

Wilhelm and the kids. Billy Hank is top right.

Reading:
Bjerre-Poulsen, Niels. Right Face: Organizing the American Conservative Movement, 1945-65. Museum Tusculanum Press. Copenhagen, 2002.
Cole, Wayne S.. America First: The Battle Against Interventionism, 1940-1941. University of Wisconsin, 1953.
Tanenhaus, Sam. Buckley: The Life and Revolution that Changed America. Random House, 2025.
Walsh, David Austin. Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right. Yale, 2024.

Intro Music: Spike Jones, "Der Fuerher's Face". 1943.
Outro Music: Ramona, "Cello and Voice".
Other music from pixabay.org, chosic.com, fesliyanstudios.com, archive.org, and Ramona.

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Medievalist Chase Padusniak joins TSBU to help Fritz briefly extend his vacation from contemporary horrors with 14th-century ones, and narrate the chaotic struggles of class formation in Norwich and the Low Countries through the strange lens of medieval mysticism.

DMs take note! Lorestuff incoming...

Stay tuned for Chase's upcoming podcast, Death Is a Photograph, coming soon!
For Patrons, Chase will be joining us in the tavern this month to take your questions about all things medieval and mystical. Check out our Patreon page soon for times!

Anchorite digs.

Music: Dies Irae (Dance Remix) and Gregorian Chants (Remix) prod. by Ryz
SFX and add. music: freesound.org and pixabay.com

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In 1647, the urban dispossessed of Naples erupted into a revolutionary class war against their gangster aristocracy. Lead by a 'barefoot Moses', the destitute Masaniello, the brief but impactful revolt led to over a week of chaos that turned power in the Renaissance metropolis on its head, marking "the first time that the proletariat of any European city seized power and governed alone".

Background music from pixabay.com and fesliyanstudios.com
Intro: Oro. Stop the War. 1977.
Outro: Donatella Viggiano. Napule Canta e More. 1979.
Also featuring piano compositions by Franz List, performer unknown.

Reading:
D'Alessio, Silvana. Masaniello: The Life and Afterlife of a Neapolitan Revolutionary. Amsterdam U.P., 2022 (Translation).
Linebaugh, Peter, and Marcus Rediker. The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.
Monod, Paul. The Power of Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 1588-1715. Yale U.P., 1999.

Sound effects from freesound.org

Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

Historian of Irish resistance Pádraig Ó Ruairc joins Fritz to discuss the rise of the British Fascisti (yes, that's what they called themselves), the first Fascist organization in the UK, their imperial and class origins, their freaky friends and their terrible role in the occupation of Ireland.

Get Burn Them Out!: A History of Fascism and the Far Right in Ireland from Bloomsbury press!

Music: Opener "Come Out Ye Black and Tans" attributed to Dominic Behan, performer unknown. retrieved from archive.org.
Closer: "God Bless England" performed by the Mary Wallopers.
also featuring music from fesliyanstudios.com

Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

In an attempt to wrap his head around the ultra-influential Council for National Policy, the secretive beating heart of the American Right today, Fritz is compelled to just sum up the whole history of Americanism instead, the oft-neglected endemic form of fascism in the U. S. of A.. From the National Association of Manufacturers, through the American Legion, to the Evangelical Right, the story of the CNP isn't only Reaganism, Project 2025, the Rapture and death squads; it's the bleeding edge of American fascism itself!

Key Readings:
Anderson, Scott, and Jon Lee Anderson. Inside the League: The Shocking Exposé of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American Death Squads Have Infiltrated the World Anti-Communist League. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986.
Barkun, Michael. Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. Revised edition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
Bellant, Russ. Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party. Boston: South End Press, 1991.
Celestini, Carmen. God, Country, and Christian Conservatives - The National Association of Manufacturers, the John Birch Society, and the Rise of the Christian Right. (Dissertation 2018, University of Waterloo)
Eco, Umberto. 1995. “Ur-Fascism.” The New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995.
Gray, Justin. The Inside Story of the Legion. New York: Boni & Gaer, 1948.

Music:
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - 'California Uber Alles'.
John Hartford - 'I'm Still Here'
Koleso Nešťastia - 361.1
All other music from pixabay.com, archive.org and fesliyanstudios.com
Sound effects from freesound.org

TSBU meets Laura, citizen assembly member and activist, in Serbia to discuss the historical and current developments in the ongoing anti-government protest movement which began in November of last year and shows no sign of stopping. They talk to Fritz about the ins and outs of the self-organized Citizen Assemblies within which they participate, the limits and possibilities of horizontalist political organizing, police violence, electoral developments and what's changed in the people's self-image since the revolt began.

Laura's links for listeners:
Fifty days of detention: "Enemies of the state" from Novi Sad - Vreme
Statement and Summary of Wiretapping Scandal - My Voice My Choice (Instagram)
Academics for Students in Serbia - International solidarity hub (Instagram - includes links to petitions)

>Link to the drone footage mentioned in episode<

Opening theme: Uradi nešto ("Do something") by Azra (1980)
Closing theme: Svi u blokade ("Everyone to the Blockades") by MP (2025) - YouTube link
All other music from pixabay.com

Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

In 1741, the motley proletariat of New York conspired to burn their ruling class from their city, and it might have worked too! Refusing the relationships of exploitation and 'natural' hierarchies between them, John Hughson, John Gwin, Peg Kerry, 'Quack', and many others imagined a new world; but, the empire had its own ideas...

Reading: Linebaugh, Peter, and Marcus Rediker. The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.

The theme music for this episode was "Diaspora" by Gang Shot.
> Their YouTube channel <

All other music in this episode from pixabay.com and feslyianstudios.com except for:
"350" by Koleso Nešťastia available on bandcamp.com,
An Spailpín Fánach - Mundy and Kila,
The Mary Wallopers' "Beer and Tobacco" in this video,
and here's a performance of the 18th century 'slave song' from the episode.

Sound effects from freesound.org

Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

Legend Keith Allen Dennis joins Fritz to inaugurate The State Between Us with step-by-step, easy-to-follow guide for retrieving primary source materials from U.S. archives. Whether you're in a totally different country, broke as a joke and doing it from home, or if you're lucky enough to be within spitting distance of a decent collection and have a little cash to throw around for the cause (or any mix thereof), Keith has you covered.

Warning! Keith ended up getting charged for the Portland request for that American Legion box. Do yourself a favor and specify that if an archive charges, they inform you before digitizing the boxes....

A note on the challenge issued at the end of the show: more information - as well as a submission location and guidelines - will be settled as we get a bit further down the road.

Music by Koleso Nešťastia at Bandcamp.

Clips from John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon's 1974 film, Dark Star.

Links discussed in the show:

Finding Aids and Request Forms for Hoover Institute Archives at Online Archive of California
(Using ATLAS/AEON system)

University of Oregon Special Collections Online Finding Aid

...

**Fritz does a quick request! (In pictures)**

Step 1: Locate a special collection

Step 2: Use the finding aid from the google link to locate a topic of interest. Note down the box #, folder #, and item title for use later when you make your request.
George Viereck and Hamfish? Yes, please!

Step 3: Scroll back up to the top of the page and select "Request Items"

Step 4: You will be asked to log-in to Aeon or register. Go ahead and do that. Don't be scared.

Step 5: After registering and logging-in, you will be taken to this page, where you can finally submit your request. Scroll on down until you find the item you're looking for and tick the box. I only chose one item because OAC only allows for one free folder per request. If you want more, you have to pay a fee...

Step 6: Continue scrolling past the enormous list of folders, trying not to get distracted by the dark possibilities of this fashy fool's private letters, and start filling in the fields as shown. Remember, a little sweetness goes a long way!

Step 7: Note the buttons for "Submit Request for Reading Room" (the default option) and "Request Digitization". Now since I'm both lazy and far away from the OAC, I want to change that to "Request Digitization", revealing a new set of fields. Fill those in the same way I did here.

Step 8: Click "Submit Request" at the bottom of the screen and it should take you here! That's it! Now just obsessively refresh your email for the next six-to-eight weeks until your folder arrives!

With any luck, we should be able to start assembling a TSBU archival list in the future, but for now, treasure your treasure, and thanks for listening to or watching episode zero!

luv,
The State Between Us