In the summer of 1934, an American professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati, Earle Edward Eubank, travelled through Europe and, in doing so, visited the most famous sociologists of the time in England, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and France. This book is a description of this journey, its results and consequences.

Over recent years there has been growing interest in the relations between academic intellectuals and professionals under the Nazi regime. Several works on Heidegger, Nazi doctors and Paul de Man have appeared. This book attempts to do for sociology what has been done for other fields: to demythologize the pre-war role of sociologists and provide a serious historical basis for reflection on it. The myth is simple: that the noble and clear-sighted Frankfurt School was expelled by Hitler and raised the consciousness of the west. The realities are considerably more complex. During and after the war, a consensus account of fascism emerged. But in the inter-war years sociologists misanalyzed, misunderstood or supported fascism. The book examines the historical record in Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, the USA and the UK.

We know a lot about the sociology of fascism, but how have sociologists responded to fascism when confronted with it in their own lives? How courageous or compromising have they been? And why has this history been shrouded in silence for so long? In this major work of historical scholarship sociologists from around the world describe and evaluate the reactions of sociologists to the rise and practice of fascism.