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American Empire serie (books)

Freedom Party

The Prequels to this serie:

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Freedom Party

Image by John Tate

I saw a book recently, one of Harry Turtledove's alternate history novels, set in the 1930ies. The dust cover shows (among other stuff) a flag design consisting of a red background with a blue swastika edged and starred white.

I'm not familiar with Turtledove's "universe", but (even if it does include an independent Confererate Sates of America, the real thing plus most of Texas, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Sonora and Chihuahua), I cant see any intimate connection between CSA and nazi Germany (intimate enough to reach the flag, that is). AFAIK, in his alternate timeline the CSA are a poor country and Germany is more or less allied to the rump US (or not so rump, since it includes most english-speaking Canada).
Anto'nio Martins-Tuva'lkin , 10 july 2002

I happen to have read these novels, and the cover illustration is based on the flag of the CSA Freedom Party--which, in Turtledove's universe, is a fascist movement that arises in the CSA after the nation's defeat in an alternate WW I. (The CSA, the UK and France fought the USA, Germany and Austria-Hungary.)

The Freedom Party flag is the Confederate Battle Flag with colors reversed: blue field, white-bordered red saltire with white stars. Turtledove notes, by the way, that the national flag of his alternate CSA is the Stars and Bars.

Despite the cover illustration, there is no hint in the novels that the swastika is actually an insignia of the Freedom Party.
Tom Gregg , 11 july 2002

I have attached the update of what the Freedom Party flag looks like from the *The Victorious Opposition*. At this time (approx 1930s), the CSA has fifteen states. (In this timeline, they still use the Stars-and-Bars as the national flag, but I believe the Freedom Party flag is always flown beside.)
John Tate , 8 january 2004

The 15 stars represent the 15 states of the CSA (their original 11 plus Kentucky, Sonora, Chihuahua, and Cuba - they had 16 before they lost Sequoyah, i.e. Oklahoma, in WWI). Like the Nazi flag with the German B-W-R tricolor, this flag is flown alongside the Stars and Bars.
John Tate , 1 december 2004

Real life use of the Freedom Party flag

I found this photo and it would seem that someone from the "white civil right movement" went ahead and decided that the reversed-coloured CBF from Harry turtledove's novel was a good design... Considering that the flag in question represent a nazi-like organisation, this is not exactly giving me a good opinion of their objectives.
Marc Pasquin , 1 may 2004