The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda re-appraises one of the most closely studied issues in European history - the appeal of the Nazi party and analyses the reasons behind the remarkable and sustained success of National Socialism in Germany. David Welch challenges previously held assumptions about the effectiveness of Nazi Propaganda, summarizes the major current debates and argues that in order to be successful, propaganda must preach to the partially converted.
This second edition brings the book up to date with a revised introduction and postscript to reflect the historiographical debates of the 1990s. It includes new material on many topics such as:
* continuities and discontinuities between Weimar and the Third Reich
* the medium of radio
* the 'Hitler myth'
* Nazi targeting of specific classes and social groups
* racial purity.

In 1940, Daily Telegraph correspondent Henry Buckley published his eyewitness account of his experiences reporting form the Spanish Civil War. The copies of the book, stored in a warehouse in London, were destroyed during the Blitz and only a handful of copies of his unique chronicle were saved. Now, eighty years after its first publication, this exceptional eyewitness account of the war is republished with a new introduction by acclaimed scholar Paul Preston. The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic is a unique account of Spanish politics throughout the Second Republic, from its foundation of 14 April 1931 to its defeat at the end of March 1939. It combines personal recollections of meetings with the great politicians of the day and intimate accounts of dramatic events with a deep understanding of Spain - its people, politics and culture. Providing a fascinating portrait of a crucial decade of contemporary Spanish history and based on an abundance of the witness material, this important book is one of the most enduring records of the Second Republic and is therefore essential reading for anyone interested in the Spanish Civil War.

This text surveys the development of British fascism between 1918 and 1939. Firstly, it provides an accessible guide to the essential features of British fascism in the interwar period. Secondly, it considers a previously under-researched area of British fascism, namely fascism and culture. The book explores the various definitions of fascism, before moving on to analyze the origins of British fascism, the fascist parties and groups, fascism and culture, the membership, and British fascist antisemitism. This book should prove of value to undergraduate students, scholars of generic fascism, and anyone interested in the study of fascist movements and British political and cultural history in this period.

Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. Aftershocks offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat--not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism and communism. Seva Gunitsky argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to the international system. These hegemonic shocks, marked by the sudden rise and fall of great powers, have been essential and often-neglected drivers of domestic transformations. Though rare and fleeting, they not only repeatedly alter the global hierarchy of powerful states but also create unique and powerful opportunities for sweeping national reforms--by triggering military impositions, swiftly changing the incentives of domestic actors, or transforming the basis of political legitimacy itself. As a result, the evolution of modern regimes cannot be fully understood without examining the consequences of clashes between great powers, which repeatedly--and often unsuccessfully--sought to cajole, inspire, and intimidate other states into joining their camps.

Victoria Barnett describes the dramatic struggle between Nazism and the German Confessing Church --- a group of outraged Christians who sought to establish a church untainted by Nazi ideology. For this remarkable book, Barnett interviewed more than sixty Germans who were active in the Confessing Church. She quotes liberally from their frank, unvarnished testimony, using rich historical and archival material to frame their stories. For the Soul of the People vividly portrays a church divided between those who compromised with Nazism and those who eventually tried to overthrow it.

Stanely G. payne here presents a full history of fascism in interwar Europe, as well as a survey of fascist theory and postwar fascism. The author examines all major fascist movements as well as other forms of authoritarian nationalism and provides a comprehensive work on generic fascism to date. The book traces the phenomenon of fascism through the history of ideas, previous political movements, and the events of the First World War. Although the focus is principally fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the book also gives detailed attention to the Romanian Iron Guard, Franco's Spain, Japan and proto-fascist movements around the globe. The author explores the reasons for both the limits of fascism's appeal and the historical transcendence of the "fascist era".The inclusion of other forms of authoritarian nationalism lays a foundation for comparative analysis and leads to a more workable definition of authoritarianism. It should be useful reading for students studying the rise of totalitarianism in twentieth-century Europe and for those concerned about the rise of ultranationalism today.

Our understanding of culture and of the catastrophe unleashed by National Socialism have always been regarded as interrelated. For all its brutality, Nazism always spoke in the name of the great German tradition, often using such "high culture" to justify atrocities committed. Were not such actions necessary for the defense of classical cultural values and ideal images against the polluted, degenerate groups who sought to sully and defile them? Ironically, some of National Socialism's victims confronted and interpreted their experiences precisely through this prism of culture and catastrophe. Many of these victims had traditionally regarded Germany as a major civilizing force. In fact, from the late eighteenth century on, German Jews had constructed themselves in German culture's image. Many of the German-speaking Jewish intellectuals who became victims of National Socialism had been raised and completely absorbed in the German humanistic tradition. One of the most stark existential dilemmas they were forced to confront was the stripping away of this spiritual inheritance, the experience of expropriation from their own culture. Steven Aschheim here engages the multiple aspects of German and German-Jewish cultural history which touch upon the intricate interplay between culture and catastrophe, providing insights into the relationship between German culture and the origins, dispositions, and aftermath of National Socialism. He analyzes the designation of Nazism as part of the West's cultural code representing an absolute standard of evil, and sheds light on the problematics of current German, Jewish, and Israeli inscriptions of Nazism and its atrocities, capturing the ongoing centralrelevance of that experience to contemporary culture and collective individual self-definitions.

This volume investigates a galaxy of diverse networks and intellectual actors who engaged in a broad political environment, from conservatism to the most radical right, between the World Wars. Looking beyond fascism, it considers the less-investigated domain of the 'Latin space', which is both geographical and cultural, encompassing countries of both Southern Europe and Latin America. Focus is given to mid-level civil servants, writers, journalists and artists and important 'transnational agents' as well as the larger intellectual networks to which they belonged. The book poses such questions as: In what way did the intellectuals align national and nationalistic values with the project of creating a 'Republic of Letters' that extended beyond each country's borders, a 'space' in which one could produce and disseminate thought whose objective was to encourage political action? What kinds of networks did they succeed in establishing in the interwar period? Who were these intellectuals-in-action? What role did they play in their institutions' and cultural associations' activities? A wider and intricate analytical framework emerges, exploring right-wing intellectual agents and their networks, their travels and the circulation of ideas, during the interwar period and on a transatlantic scale, offering an original contribution to the debate on interwar authoritarian regimes and opening new possibilities for research.

Adolf Eichmann was the operational manager of the genocide that dispatched six million European Jews to the gas chambers. Escaping US custody in 1946, he hid in various locations in Germany before absconding in 1950 via a 'ratline' escape route to Argentina, where he lived, undisturbed, for the next decade. On 11 May 1960 he was captured in an operation of breathtaking skill and daring by a team of Mossad agents in a Buenos Aires suburb. Smuggled out of Argentina to Israel, Eichmann was indicted there on charges of crimes against humanity, and hanged on 1 June 1962. Part history, part detective story, part international thriller, Hunting Eichmann brings the story of the fifteen-year search for Eichmann more thrillingly, more accurately, more completely to life than ever before. Superbly researched and relentlessly paced, Hunting Eichmann brings us closer to understanding the architect of the Holocaust than ever before - a man whose terrifying ordinariness came to embody the 'banality of evil'.

Since unification, Germany has experienced profound changes, including the reawakening of xenophobic hate crime, antisemitic incidents, and racist violence. This book presents the most recent research conducted by a team of American and German experts in political science, sociology, mass communication, and history. They analyze the degrees of antisemitism, xenophobia, remembrance, and Holocaust knowledge in German public opinion; the groups and organizations that propagate such prejudice and hate; and the German, American, and Jewish perceptions of, and reactions to, these phenomena.

Since unification, Germany has undergone profound changes, including the reawakening of xenophobic hate crime, anti-Semitic incidents, and racist violence. This book will present the most recent findings on German public opinion, private attitudes, official policies, and right wing political developments. It will examine the dimensions, sources of, and remedies to anti-Semitism and xenophobia.

In this authoritative study, one of the first to appear in English, Erik Levi explores the ambiguous relationship between music and politics during one of the darkest periods of recent cultural history. Utilising material drawn from contemporary documents, journals and newspapers, he traces the evolution of reactionary musical attitudes which were exploited by the Nazis in the final years of the Weimar Republic, chronicles the mechanisms that were established after 1933 to regiment musical life throughout Germany and the occupied territories, and examines the degree to which the climate of xenophobia, racism and anti-modernism affected the dissemination of music either in the opera house and concert hall, or on the radio and in the media.

This book revolves around the intricate interplay between culture and catastrophe. It seeks to engage the various permutations, the complexity and the unresolved dimensions of this connection, especially as it relates to the origins, disposition and aftermath of National Socialism. It examines various German and Jewish responses to Nazism and its roots, and demonstrates the ongoing relevance of that experience to contemporary culture and collective and individual self-definitions.

From 1931 to 1937, as Germany's police merged with security services of the National Socialists, the standards of police work, such as professionalism, protecting the state, and the image of `good' guys fighting `bad' were perverted. Browder closely details this transition by following the lives of the men who participated in it.

In 2003, the occupation of a state-owned building in Rome led to the emergence of a new extreme-right youth movement: CasaPound Italia (CPI). Its members described themselves as 'Fascists of the Third Millennium', and were unabashed about their admiration for Benito Mussolini. Over the next 15 years, they would take to the street, contest national elections, open over a hundred centres across Italy, and capture the attention of the Italian public. While CPI can count only on a few thousands votes, it enjoys disproportionate attention in public debates from the media. So what exactly is CasaPound? How can we explain the high profile achieved by such a nostalgic group with no electoral support? In this book, Caterina Froio, Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Giorgia Bulli and Matteo Albanese explore CasaPound Italia and its particular political strategy combining the organization and style of both political parties and social movements and bringing together extreme-right ideas and pop-culture symbols. They contend that this strategy of hybridization allowed a fringe organization like CasaPound to consolidate its position within the Italian far-right milieu, but also, crucially, to make extreme-right ideas routine in public debates. The authors illustrate this argument drawing on unique empirical material gathered during five years of research, including several months of overt observation at concerts and events, face-to-face interviews, and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of online and offline campaigns. By describing how hybridization grants extremist groups the leeway to expand their reach and penetrate mainstream political debates, this book is core reading for anyone concerned about the nature and growth of far-right politics in contemporary democracies. Providing a fresh insight as to how contemporary extreme-right groups organize to capture public attention, this study will also be of interest to students, scholars and activists interested in the complex relationship between party competition and street protest more generally.

Highlighting the "mass" nature of interwar European fascism has long become commonplace. Throughout the years, numerous critics have construed fascism as a phenomenon of mass society, perhaps the ultimate expression of mass politics. This study deconstructs this long-standing perception. It argues that the entwining of fascism with the masses is a remarkable transubstantiation of a movement which understood and presented itself as a militant rejection of the ideal of mass politics, and indeed of mass society and mass culture more broadly conceived. Thus, rather than "massifying" society, fascism was the culmination of a long effort on the part of the elites and the middle-classes to de-massify it. The perennially menacing mass - seen as plebeian and insubordinate - was to be drilled into submission, replaced by supposedly superior collective entities, such as the nation, the race, or the people. Focusing on Italian fascism and German National Socialism, but consulting fascist movements and individuals elsewhere in interwar Europe, the book incisively shows how fascism is best understood as ferociously resisting what Elias referred to as "the civilizing process" and what Marx termed "the social individual." Fascism, notably, was a revolt against what Nietzsche described as the peaceful, middling and egalitarian "Last Humans."

Fascist Italy is a concise introduction to the phenomenon of Italian fascism and its impact. The author balances an up-to-date re-evaluation of political, diplomatic and military developments with a full assessment of the more neglected domestic and cultural dimensions of the subject. With the aid of documents and recent research on the subject, this book presents an analysis of the origins of the movement, the reasons behind its political success and the methods used to construct and consolidate a regime capable of resolving the problems of mass society in the 20th century. Within his broad-ranging analysis, Whittam places particular emphasis on the attempts to exert social control, the interaction of party and state, the tension between revolutionary and conservative tendencies and on the role of Il Duce. Mussolini's triumphs and failures in peace and war and his ultimate responsibility for the disintegration of the regime are discussed objectively. -- .

This edited volume traces the rise of far right vigilante movements - some who have been involved in serious violence against minorities, migrants and other vulnerable groups in society, whereas other vigilantes are intimidating but avoid using violence. Written by an international team of contributors, the book features case studies from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, and Asia. Each chapter is written to a common research template examining the national social and political context, the purpose of the vigilante group, how it is organised and operates, its communications and social media strategy and its relationship to mainstream social actors and institutions, and to similar groups in other countries. The final comparative chapter explores some of the broader research issues such as under which conditions such vigiliantism emerges, flourishes or fails, policing approaches, masculinity, the role of social media, responses from the state and civil society, and the evidence of transnational co-operation or inspiration. This is a groundbreaking volume which will be of particular interest to scholars with an interest in the extreme right, social movements, political violence, policing and criminology.

Right-wing populism is a global phenomenon that challenges several pillars of liberal democracy, and it is often described as a dangerous political ideology because it resonates with the fascist idea of power in terms of anti-pluralism and lack of minorities' protection. In Western Europe, many political actors are exploiting the fears and insecurities linked to globalization, economic crisis, and mass migrations to attract voters. However, while right-wing populist discourses are mainstream in certain countries, they are almost completely taboo in others. Why is right-wing populism so successful in Italy, Austria, and France while in Germany it is marginal and socially unacceptable? It is because each country developed a certain collective memory of the fascist past, which stigmatizes that past to different levels. For this reason, right-wing populism can find favorable conditions to thrive in certain countries, while in others it is considered as an illegitimate and dangerous idea of power. Through a comparative study of eight European countries, this book shows that short-term factors linked to levels of corruption, economic situation, and quality of democracy interact with long-term cultural elements and collective memories in determining the social acceptability of right-wing populist discourses.

Founded in 1922 the Hitler Youth movement was the second oldest Nazi group. Comprising male youths aged 14 - 18, by December 1936 membership stood at over 5 million. During the Second World War the role of Hitlerjugend evolved from assisting with the postal, train and fire services into full war fighting. Recruits went into units such as the elite 12th SS Panzer-Division 'Hitlerjugend' and we see graphic images of this Waffen-SS force in action both on the Eastern and Western fronts. Even as the Nazi cause faced inevitable defeat these units fought with fanatical and disturbing bravery and after defeat in May 1945 elements carried out guerrilla actions in the Bavarian and Austrian mountains. The reader will find much original material on this legendary but distasteful Nazi organisation.

This is a study of the social, economic, and political role of Vodka in nineteenth-century Russia. Since the `Green Serpent' first appeared in sixteenth-century Muscovy, it has played a vital part in Russian life. Vodka became an essential part of Russian working-class celebrations: personal, religious, and commercial. Trade in Vodka redistributed wealth upwards through Russian society over several centuries. Indeed, Russia's status as a great power was underpinned by it: by the nineteenth century, it generated one-third of government revenue - enough to cover most of the costs of the vast army. The dependence on Vodka of both people and state has endured into the Gorbachev era. But despite Vodka's key role in Russian history, and the complex network of corruption associated with it, the subject has been ignored by most historians until now. This study concentrates on an important transitional era in the history of Vodka: the early nineteenth century. During this period, Vodka taxes played the role that salt taxes had played in the ancien regime in France. The abolition of the tax farm in 1863 should be seen as one of the most important of the `Great Reforms' of the 1860s, an era which, in many ways, parallels the glasnost of the 1980s.

Inspired by recent works on Nazi empire, this book provides a framework to guide occupation research with a broad comparative angle focusing on human interactions. Overcoming national compartmentalization, it examines Nazi occupations with attention to relations between occupiers and local populations and differences among occupation regimes. This is a timely book which engages in historical and current conversations on European nationalisms and the rise of right-wing populisms.

Since the birth of fascism in the 1920s, well before the global renaissance of "white nationalism," the United States has been home to its own distinct fascist movements, some of which decisively influenced the course of US history. Yet long before Antifa became a household word in the United States, they were met, time and again, by an equally deep antifascist current. Many on the left are unaware that the United States has a rich antifascist tradition, because it has rarely been discussed as such, nor has it been accessible in one place. This reader reconstructs the history of US antifascism the twenty-first century, showing how generations of writers, organisers, and fighters spoke to each other over time.