Allan Chase

author

Allan Chase

1913–1993

A sharp-eyed American writer and independent scholar, he moved from anti-fascist reporting and fiction into ambitious nonfiction about public health, racism, and science. His best-known work challenged scientific racism with force and clarity.

1 Audiobook

The Five Arrows

The Five Arrows

by Allan Chase

About the author

Born in New York City in 1913, Allan Chase was an American writer and independent scholar whose career ranged across reportage, novels, and deeply researched nonfiction. Early on, he published Falange: The Axis Secret Army in the Americas in 1943, an investigation of pro-Axis activity in Latin America and the Philippines during World War II.

He then wrote the novels The Five Arrows and Shadow of a Hero before turning increasingly to nonfiction. His later books included The Biological Imperatives: Health, Politics and Human Survival (1971), The Legacy of Malthus: The Social Costs of the New Scientific Racism (1977), Magic Shots (1982), and The Truth about STD (1983).

The Legacy of Malthus became his most recognized book, earning the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction in 1978. Chase died in 1993, leaving behind work remembered for taking on fascism, pseudoscience, and public-health questions in a direct, unsparing way.