This book is the entire complete work of John L. Spivak. The New Technique of Nazi Warfare. Exposing Hitler's Undeclared War on Americans. The material in this small volume just barely scratches the surface of a problem which is becoming increasingly grave: the activities of Nazi agents in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. During the past five years I have observed some of them, watching the original, crudely organized and directed propaganda machine develop, grow and leave an influence far wider than most people seem to realize. What at first appeared to be merely a distasteful attempt by Nazi Government officials at direct interference in the affairs of the American people and their Government, has now assumed the more sinister aspect of also seeking American naval and military secrets. Further studies in Central America, Mexico and the Panama Canal Zone disclosed an espionage network directed by the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis and operating against the peace and security of the United States. A scrutiny of the Nazi Fifth Column in a few European countries, especially in Czechoslovakia just before that Republic was turned over to Germany's mercy by the Munich "peace" and in France where Nazi and Italian agents built an amazing secret underground army, has made the fascist activities in the Western Hemisphere somewhat clearer to me.
About the Author: John L. Spivak (1897-1981), whom Lincoln Steffens called "the best of us" among the many progressive and muckraking writers of America's early 20th century is almost unknown today. Neglect may be due to his ideology. He was a thinly disguised communist and was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Spivak was imprisoned for his alleged libelous writings. Perhaps neglect is due to his many violations of ethical standards in methods of investigation and reporting. Maybe he is not remembered because his investigative passions were spent on independent inquiries that led to sensational books and exposes in leftist media. He was at the center of many landmark cases, issues, and wars in American and international history. Spivak's documentary photography was carried on inside Georgia chain gang camps during the early 1930s. He published several images in Georgia Nigger, a fictional book based on his underground investigations. Spivak claimed that those on the chain gang, primarily African-Americans, were sometimes beaten or worked to death as a result of medieval-like methods of diabolical pain and punishment. Georgia Nigger had great public impact. Spivak's analysis occasionally is eerily relevant to issues raised by Abu Ghraib prisoner/detainee abuses by military guards in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Spivak's photography is analyzed within the frameworks of aesthetics theory, visual rhetoric, reception theory, and the historical tradition of documentary photography analysis.