This book investigates how fascism - as an ideology and political praxis - reconfigured the ideological, political, and moral landscape of interwar Europe, generating an atmosphere of extreme 'license' that facilitated the leap into eliminationist violence. It demonstrates how fascist ideology linked the prospect of violent 'cleansing' to utopias of national/racial regeneration, thus encouraging and legitimizing targeted hatred against particular 'others'. It also shows how the diffusion and internationalization of fascism in the 1930s produced a sense of a revolutionary new beginning and created a transnational fascist 'new order' in which Nazi Germany came to occupy a potent position of authority. The book analyzes how the eliminationist initiative and precedent of Nazi Germany became a second 'license' that empowered fascist regimes across Europe to embark on their own eliminationist projects with diminished accountability. Finally, it examines how this 'license' - enhanced by the actions of fascists and the collapse of order caused by World War Two - released individuals and communities from the burden of legal and moral accountability, turning them into accomplishes in the most wide, brutal, and devastating genocidal campaign that the continent had ever experienced.

How does a city and a nation deal with a legacy of perpetrating atrocity? How are contemporary identities negotiated and shaped in the face of concrete reminders of a past that most wish they did not have? Difficult Heritage focuses on the case of Nuremberg - a city whose name is indelibly linked with Nazism - to explore these questions and their implications. Using an original in-depth research, using archival, interview and ethnographic sources, it provides not only fascinating new material and perspectives, but also more general original theorizing of the relationship between heritage, identity and material culture. The book looks at how Nuremberg has dealt with its Nazi past post-1945. It focuses especially, but not exclusively, on the city's architectural heritage, in particular, the former Nazi party rally grounds, on which the Nuremburg rallies were staged. The book draws on original sources, such as city council debates and interviews, to chart a lively picture of debate, action and inaction in relation to this site and significant others, in Nuremberg and elsewhere. In doing so, Difficult Heritage seeks to highlight changes over time in the ways in which the Nazi past has been dealt with in Germany, and the underlying cultural assumptions, motivations and sources of friction involved. Whilst referencing wider debates and giving examples of what was happening elsewhere in Germany and beyond, Difficult Heritage provides a rich in-depth account of this most fascinating of cases. It also engages in comparative reflection on developments underway elsewhere in order to contextualize what was happening in Nuremberg and to show similarities to and differences from the ways in which other 'difficult heritages' have been dealt with elsewhere. By doing so, the author offers an informed perspective on ways of dealing with difficult heritage, today and in the future, discussing innovative museological, educational and artistic practice.

Historians of the French extreme right frequently denote the existence of a strong xenophobic and nationalist tradition dating from the 1880s, a perpetual anti-republicanism which pervaded twentieth-century political discourse. Much attention is habitually paid to the interwar era, deemed the zenith of this success, when the leagues attracted hundreds of thousands of members and enjoyed significant political acclaim. Most works on the subject speak of 'the French right' or 'French fascism', presenting compendia of figures and organizations, from the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s through the notorious Vichy regime, the authoritarian construct which emerged following the defeat to Nazi Germany in June 1940. However, historians rarely discuss the programmatic elements of extreme right-wing doctrine, which demanded the eradication of parliamentary democracy and the transformation of the nation and state according to group principles. Instead, most detail the organization and membership of various organizations, and often recount their quotidian activities as political actors within (and in opposition to) the Third Republic. This book offers a new interpretation of the extreme right in interwar French politics, focusing upon the largest and most influential such groups in 1920s and 1930s, the Faisceau and the Croix de Feu. It explores their designs for extensive political, economic, and social renewal, a project that commanded significant attention from the leadership and rank-and-file of both organizations, providing the overarching goal behind their aspiration to power. The book examines five components of these efforts: A renewal of politics and government, the establishment of a new economic order, a revaluation of gender and familial relations, the role of youth in the new socio-political construct, and the politics of exclusion inherent in every facet of Faisceau and CDF doctrine. In so doing it contributes to a historical understanding of the programmatic elements of the interwar extreme-right, while simultaneously situating its most prominent exponents within their broader historical context.

This book elucidates the link between the politics of a now seemingly permanent crisis in Europe and the politicisation of European integration. Looking at the epistemic dimension of crises, it suggests that the way in which a crisis is framed and contested determines its potential impact on the level of politicisation of European integration. Europe is more challenged and contested today than it has even been, facing crisis of an almost existential kind. Yet, political crises are manufactured and narrated, so Europe has the possibility to intervene and 'bring about her recovery', instead of letting these crises prove terminal. This book explores the political process in and through which certain events come to be framed as constitutive of a moment that requires a decisive intervention. It shows that crises require a double framing: a situation needs to be identified as one of crisis in the first place and, subsequently, the nature and character of the crisis need to be specified. By examining a wide range of policy areas, the book demonstrates that framing of crises, i.e., identifying one situation both as a crisis and a crisis of a particular kind, contributes to the politicisation (or depoliticisation) of the process of European integration. The chapters in this book were originally published as special issue of Journal of European Integration.

A great deal of effort has been expended by Anglo-American scholars in an attempt to isolate past and contemporary "fascisms," "neofascisms," "cryptofascisms," and "latent" fascisms in the modern world. A. James Gregor's "Phoenix: Fascism in Our Time" offers an insightful history of the intellectual rationale for Benito Mussolini's fascism. His work examines the complex rationale provided by major Italian intellectuals. The book provides a list of recurrent features that helps to identify the generic phenomenon.

This lucid account reviews seriously neglected aspects of intellectual history, describing the socioeconomic and political conditions that precipitate and sustain fascism. Gregor shows that Italian fascism was supported by a responsible and credible rationale. His account of that rationale permits us to understand the appeal fascism as an ideal has exercised over elites and masses in the twentieth century. Gregor offers a credible list of traits in showing how instances of fascism can be identified when they first appear. The last chapters of the work are devoted to a case study of the newly emergent post-Soviet Russian nationalism and its affinities with historic fascism. Gregor discusses the implications of the rise of generic fascism in the former Soviet Union and post-Maoist China.

This timely volume now available in paperback offers an alternative to conventional mechanical interpretations of the major historical events of the twentieth century. "Phoenix" is must reading for scholars and policymakers dealing with European history between the two world wars, and will be instructive for anyone interested in prospects for a fascist ideology in the new millennium.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of radical right populism in Germany. It gives an overview of historical developments of the phenomenon and its current appearance. It examines three of the main far-right organizations in Germany: the radical right populist party AfD (Alternative for Germany), Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of the Occident), and the Identitarian Movement. The book investigates the positions of these groups as expressed in programmes, publications, and statements of party leaders and movement activists. It explores their history, ideologies, strategies, and their main activists and representatives, as well as the overlap between the groups. The ideological positions examined include populism, nativism, authoritarianism, volkish nationalism, ethnopluralism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, antifeminism, and Euroscepticism. The analysis shows that these ideological features are sometimes strategically interlinked for effect and used to justify specific political demands such as the stronger regulation of immigration and the exclusion of Muslims. This much-needed volume will be of particular interest to students and researchers of German politics, populism, social movements, party politics, and right-wing extremism.

'Gripping and all too timely' James Hawes 'A brilliant mix of detailed research and vivid storytelling' Julia Boyd 'History at its very best - and a fabulous translation, too' Graham Hurley In March 1930, after the collapse of the coalition that had ruled Germany since 1928, President Hindenburg asked Heinrich Bruning, bespectacled and scholarly leader of the Catholic Centre Party, to form a government. Some three years later, in January 1933, Hindenburg appointed as chancellor the demagogic, virulently anti-Semitic leader of the National Socialist party. Within weeks, Adolf Hitler has begun the process of dismantling the flawed democracy of the Weimar Republic and replacing it with a one-party totalitarian state. Darkness Falling depicts in compelling fashion the serial crises and mounting violence of a febrile era. Peter Walther examines the slow death of Weimar through the prism of nine colourful protagonists, including leading German politicians of right, left and centre, the clairvoyant and occultist, Erik Jan Hanussen and the formidable American journalist Dorothy Thompson. He profiles these heterogeneous characters in intriguing detail, pulling together the threads of their lives to chart the demise of German parliamentary democracy and the rise of National Socialist tyranny. Along the way we gain fascinating insights into the machinations in the corridors of power to keep the 'Bohemian corporal' from the chancellorship, and the venality of the Nazi elite and its fellow travellers from the demi-monde of early 1930s Berlin. Walther evokes the louche nightlife of the German capital - 'a playground for charlatans and prophets, madmen and crooks' - memorably and atmospherically. A masterly fusion of meticulously researched historical writing and vividly propulsive storytelling, Darkness Falling is a distinctive and enthralling account of Germany's slide from democracy to dictatorship. Translated by Dr Peter Lewis.

Architectural design can play a role in helping make the past present in meaningful ways when applied to preexisting buildings and places that carry notable and troubling pasts. In this comparative analysis, Rumiko Handa establishes the critical role architectural designs play in presenting difficult pasts by examining documentation centers on National Socialism in Germany. Presenting Difficult Pasts Through Architecture analyzes four centers - Cologne, Nuremberg, Berlin, and Munich - from the point of view of their shared intent to make the past present at National Socialists' perpetrator sites. Applying original frameworks, Handa considers what more architectural design could do toward meaningful representations and interpretations of difficult pasts. This book is a must-read for students, practitioners, and academics interested in how architectural design can participate in presenting the difficult pasts of historical places in meaningful ways.

Architectural design can play a role in helping make the past present in meaningful ways when applied to preexisting buildings and places that carry notable and troubling pasts. In this comparative analysis, Rumiko Handa establishes the critical role architectural designs play in presenting difficult pasts by examining documentation centers on National Socialism in Germany. Presenting Difficult Pasts Through Architecture analyzes four centers - Cologne, Nuremberg, Berlin, and Munich - from the point of view of their shared intent to make the past present at National Socialists' perpetrator sites. Applying original frameworks, Handa considers what more architectural design could do toward meaningful representations and interpretations of difficult pasts. This book is a must-read for students, practitioners, and academics interested in how architectural design can participate in presenting the difficult pasts of historical places in meaningful ways.

Despite rich archives of work on race and the global economy, most notably by scholars of colour and Global South intellectuals, the discipline of Political Economy has largely avoided an honest confrontation with how race works within the domains it studies, not least within markets. By way of corrective, this book draws together scholarship on the material function of race at various scales in the global political economy. The collective provocation of the contributors to this volume is that race has been integral to the formation of capitalism - as extensively laid out by the racial capitalism literature - and takes on new forms in the novel market spaces of neoliberalism. The chapters within this volume also reinforce that the current political conjuncture, marked by the ascension of neo-fascist power, cannot be defined by an exceptional intrusion of racism, nor can its racism be dismissed as epiphenomenal. Raced Markets will be of great value to scholars, students, and researchers interested in political economy and racial capitalism as well as those willing to explore how race takes on new forms in the novel market spaces of contemporary neoliberalism. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the New Political Economy.

The Nazi Party and the German Foreign Office explores the struggle between entrenched diplomats in the Foreign Office and Party loyalists, who presumed that with the assumption of power in 1933 total state control was theirs.

A comprehensive new historical study of the extreme right in France, from the Vichy regime to the present day.

The Front National is France's third largest party and the most significant extreme-right force in Europe; its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, contested the second round of the 2002 presidential election with 5.5 million votes.

This book examines this resurgence of French right-wing extremism from a historical perspective, tracing the political lineage of Le Pen and the FN through key figures and movements on the French extreme right since 1940. Part 1 devotes chapters to the Vichy regime, the aftermath of the Occupation, the Poujadist movement, the Algerian War and extreme-right ideology and activism in the 1960s and 1970s. Part 2 analyzes the electoral rise of the FN, its evolving programme and exploitation of salient issues, the geography and sociology of its vote and its impact on political culture in contemporary France. The FN, it is argued, represents both the latestmanifestation of a long tradition of right-wing radicalism and a complex new phenomenon within the changing social and political dynamics of France today. This is an essential text for all readers with an interest in the future of European politics.

A comprehensive new historical study of the extreme right in France, from the Vichy regime to the present day. The Front National has for some years been France's third political party and the most significant extreme-right force in Europe; its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, contested the second round of the 2002 presidential election with 5.5 million votes. This wide-ranging and authoritative book examines the resurgence of right-wing extremism in France from a historical perspective, tracing the political lineage of Le Pen and the FN through key figures and movements on the French extreme right since 1940. Part 1 devotes chapters to the Vichy regime, the aftermath of the Occupation, the Poujadist movement, the Algerian War, the 'Nouvelle Droite', and extreme-right ideology and activism in the 1960s and 1970s. Part 2 analyzes the electoral rise of the FN, its evolving programme and exploitation of salient issues, the geography and sociology of its electorate, its exercise of local power, and its impact on national political culture in contemporary France. The FN, it is argued, represents both the latest manifestation of a long tradition of right-wing radicalism and a complex new phenomenon within the changing social and political dynamics of France today. This is an essential book for all readers with an interest in French and European politics and modern history.

A Daily Telegraph History Book of the Year 'An astonishing story... brilliantly told' Antony Beevor 'Gripping... Will appeal to anyone who relishes Ben Macintyre's tales of wartime espionage and cryptic codes.' Sunday Telegraph 'A detailed and meticulously researched tale about a pair of young German resisters that reads like a thriller.' New York Times 'Deeply engaging, enticingly written and extremely affecting.' Philippe Sands, Spectator Summertime, 1935. On a lake near Berlin, a young man is out sailing when he glimpses a woman reclining in the prow of a passing boat. Their eyes meet - and one of history's greatest conspiracies is born. Harro Schulze-Boysen had already shed blood in the fight against Nazism by the time he and Libertas Haas-Heye began their whirlwind romance. She joined the cause, and soon the two lovers were leading a network of antifascists that stretched across Berlin's bohemian underworld. Harro himself infiltrated German intelligence and began funnelling Nazi battle plans to the Allies, including the details of Hitler's surprise attack on the Soviet Union. But nothing could prepare Harro and Libertas for the betrayals they would suffer in this war of secrets - a struggle in which friend could be indistinguishable from foe. Drawing on unpublished diaries, letters and Gestapo files, Norman Ohler spins an unforgettable tale of love, heroism and sacrifice.

Fascism remains a topic that fascinates both academic and general audiences. This is the first book to look systematically at the leaders of fascism and related movements in the inter-war era. It shows how fascist leaders came to personify their movements and why the Fuhreprinzip was applied in all fascist organizations. It also explains how fascist leadership was of a very particular kind: It was almost unlimited in political discipline and required complete subordination. The legitimacy was based on a very vague notion of 'the organic unity of the state and the people', giving the leaders competence to rule without accountability to a party organization or state bodies. Thus, we can observe in all fascist parties/movements a practical form of leadership where policies of 'split and rule' were common in absence of principles of representation and opposition feedbacks. The fascist fuhrer was the leader, the party, the ideology - and when in power: the state itself. This book was previously published as a special issue of Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions.

Fascism remains a topic that fascinates both academic and general audiences. This is the first book to look systematically at the leaders of fascism and related movements in the inter-war era. It shows how fascist leaders came to personify their movements and why the Fuhreprinzip was applied in all fascist organizations. It also explains how fascist leadership was of a very particular kind: It was almost unlimited in political discipline and required complete subordination. The legitimacy was based on a very vague notion of 'the organic unity of the state and the people', giving the leaders competence to rule without accountability to a party organization or state bodies. Thus, we can observe in all fascist parties/movements a practical form of leadership where policies of 'split and rule' were common in absence of principles of representation and opposition feedbacks. The fascist fuhrer was the leader, the party, the ideology - and when in power: the state itself. This book was previously published as a special issue of Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions.

This book deals with the Second World War in Southeastern Europe from the perspective of conditions on the ground during the conflict. The focus is on the reshaping of ethnic and religious groups in wartime, on the "top-down" and "bottom-up" dynamics of mass violence, and on the local dimensions of the Holocaust. The approach breaks with the national narratives and "top-down" political and military histories that continue to be the predominant paradigms for the Second World War in this part of Europe.

This book posits a new theory of fascism as a radical political community of experience. The author engages with a range of thinkers both critical of and inspiring fascism including Walter Benjamin, Albert Camus, Ernst Junger, Carl Schmitt, Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. This book will be of interest to scholars of the history of political thought, fascism and Nazism.

In Mussolini and Fascist Italy Martin Blinkhorn explains the significance of the man, the movement and the regime which dominated Italian life between 1922 and the closing stages of the Second World War. He examines: those aspects of post-Risorgimento Italy which provided the longterm context vital to an understanding of Fascism the social and political convulsions wrought by economic change after 1890 and by Italy's intervention in the First World War the Fascist movement's rapid rise from obscurity to power and the subsequent establishment of Mussolini's dictatorship the history of the Fascist regime until its demise during the Second World War the ways in which Italian Fascism has been understood by contemporary analysts and by historians. The third edition of this best-selling Lancaster Pamphlet provides an expanded and fully updated analysis. New features include additional material on Fascist totalitarianism and a completely revised consideration of the ways in which Fascism has been interpreted.

British Catholics and Fascism is a comprehensive study of the way in which British Catholic communities reacted to fascism both at home and abroad. Drawing on substantial primary research, Tom Villis sheds new light on religious identity and political extremism in early twentieth-century Britain. He examines the careers and thought of numerous prominent Catholic writers and cultural commentators as well as the role of the Catholic press more generally, the views of the hierarchy and the overtures which the British Union of Fascists made to the Catholic communities. Debates about fascism became symbolic of the wider difficulties in articulating a religious political critique in an increasingly secular political culture. For many Catholics, pro-fascism became a way of expressing their own distinct political and social identity in a society which largely held different views.

This book discusses the archaeology and heritage of the German military presence in Finnish Lapland during the Second World War, framing this northern, overlooked WWII material legacy from the nearly forgotten Arctic front as 'dark heritage' - a concrete reminder of Finns siding with the Nazis, often seen as polluting 'war junk' that ruins the 'pristine natural beauty' of Lapland's wilderness. The scholarship herein provides fresh perspectives to contemporary discussions on heritage perception and ownership, indigenous rights, community empowerment, relational ontologies and also the ongoing worldwide refugee crisis.

Aurel Kolnai's The War against the West remains one of the most insightful analyses of Nazi thought ever written. First published in 1938 it was a revelation for many readers. Quite different in tone and approach from most other analyses of Nazism available in English, it was remarkable for the thoroughness with which it discussed the writings of Nazi thinkers and for the seriousness with which it took their views. In this edited collection published eighty years after the original book, a team of distinguished scholars reassess this classic text and also consider its continued relevance to contemporary politics. They address issues such as the comparison of Nazism and communism, anti-Semitism, British and American perceptions of the Reich before the war and the Nazi legal theory of Carl Schmitt. This book is a vital source for historians of Nazism and Fascism.

Although the Nordic countries have a reputation for tolerance and social democracy, they were not immune to fascism which spread across Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. This book offers the first comprehensive history of anti-fascism in the Nordic Countries. Through a number of case studies on anti-fascism in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, the book makes a significant contribution to the history of contentious politics in the Nordic Countries and to our broader knowledge of European fascism and anti-fascism. The case studies concentrate on the different manifestations of resistance to fascism and Nazism in the interwar era as well as some of the postwar variants. The book will be of considerable interest to scholars of anti-fascism as well as researchers of Nordic and Scandinavian history and politics.

Since the 1980s, one of the main political changes in Western Europe has been the electoral upsurge of extreme right-wing parties. However, while the electoral support of these movements has been studied extensively, their membership has largely been ignored. This book examines who joins the extreme right and why?
Drawing upon extensive research and featuring contributions from distinguished social psychologists and political scientists, this book provides the most detailed comparative study yet published of the psychology of right-wing extremist activists. Countries discussed include Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and France.

The aim of this book is to reconstruct the violent nature of the March on Rome and to emphasise its significance in demarcating a real break in the country's history and the beginning of the Fascist dictatorship. This aspect of the March has long been obscured: first by the Fascists' celebratory project, and then by the ironic and reductive interpretation of the event put forward by anti-Fascists. This volume focuses on the role and purpose of Fascist political violence from its origins. In doing so, it highlights the conflictual nature of the March by illustrating the violent impact it had on Italian institutions as well as the importance of a debate on this political turning point in Italy and beyond. The volume also examines how the event crucially contributed to the construction of a dictatorial political regime in Italy in the weeks following Mussolini's appointment as head of the government. Originally published in Italian, this book fills a notable gap in current critical discussion surrounding the March in the English language.