Ride the Tyger

This page-turning “oral biography” explores the roots of today’s far-right American politics from the Depression through McCarthyism.

Madison Hadder’s smalltown childhood before and after the Great War torments him with an abusive father and numerous family traumas. In the 1930s, Madison becomes a union organizer and supporter of Franklin Roosevelt. Disillusioned, he tumbles down the rabbit hole of arch-conservativism. Becoming a local radio and newspaper personality, Madison first advocates for the Louisiana Democratic populist Huey Long, then turns to the antisemitic radio commentator Father Charles Coughlin and the Nazi-sympathetic American hero Charles Lindbergh. A wealthy industrialist launches him into politics. After World War Two, Madison meets and champions Wisconsin’s Red-baiting senator, Joseph McCarthy. His personal life a shambles, Madison suffers a terrible fall, rises, then experiences a final, tragic descent.