RaveThe Washington PostVivid, urgent, smart ... Maddow sticks to history. She doesn’t draw out the connections to the present moment but rather lets the through lines emerge organically. Many of those parallels will be obvious to those who’ve studied recent developments in white-power movements and similar groups. But in my view, Maddow’s decision to not overexplain those connections reflects both a trust in the capacity of her readers and a sense that knowing this history will illuminate the way that fascist and authoritarian threats appear in our society in the present day. Prequel is a valuable and compelling work of the history of the present, looking at the past to understand where we are — and to locate possibilities for action that we might not otherwise have seen.
