Fascists And Honourable Men

Was France fascist in the interwar period? This comprehensive historical, political and sociological account follows the rise of engineers and political "non-conformists" in the first half of the twentieth century, examining the French technocracy's relationship with the rise of fascism in France and later the establishment of the Fourth Republic.

According to the former mayor of a small town in Umbria, in a daring escapade carried out on a June night in 1944 in German-occupied Italy, he and a group of fellow partisans rescued some Jews from a concentration camp on a small island in the middle of Lake Trasimeno, thus saving them from deportation to the gas chambers of the Third Reich. But history is always written by the victors, and the son of the Fascist camp commander, who knows what really happened, is determined to make his voice heard before he dies. His political opponents have always shrugged off his testimony and it is only after an enquiry sparked off by the chance discovery of an early Jewish manuscript in the University of Perugia that they are finally forced to face up to the truth.

The book investigates the intellectual and political trajectory of the Belgian theorist Hendrik de Man (1885-1953) by examining the impact that his works and activism had on Western European social democracy between the two world wars. Based on multinational archival research, the book highlights how the idea of economic planning became part of a wider effort to address an ideological crisis within the socialist movement and revitalise the latter amidst the Great Depression. A heavily controversial figure also because of his subsequent involvement in Belgian wartime collaboration, de Man played a pivotal role in challenging traditional Marxist assumptions about the role of the state under capitalism and in promoting transnational exchanges between unorthodox social democrats across Europe. Starting from de Man’s experience in World War I, the book analyses his departure from Marxism, his elaboration of an alternative social democratic paradigm, his entry in Belgian politics as well as the reception of his thought in France and Britain.

On 1 August 1935, only a few months before Mussolini launched the colonial enterprise in Ethiopia, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was produced at the Maxentius Basilica in Rome. The performance was organised by The National Workers’ Recreational Club (O.N.D.) and the script was submitted for censorship. However, the procedure followed a different course from the usual one as the commissioner was also part of the Fascist political system. This parallel edition presents for the first time the integral script of the censored text of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in Raffaello Piccoli's 1925 Italian translation, and explores the implications of this peculiar type of censorship at the moment when, through Shakespeare, censoring became one and the same with political propaganda.

This book takes a transnational and comparative approach that analyses the process of diffusion of a third way​ in selected transitions to authoritarianism in Europe and Latin America. When looking at the authoritarian wave of the 1930s, it is not difficult to see how some regimes appeared to offer an authoritarian third way somewhere between democracy and fascism. It is in this context that some Iberian dictatorships, such as those of Primo de Rivera in Spain, Salazar’s New State in Portugal and the short-lived Dollfuss regime in Austria are mentioned frequently. Especially during the 1930s, and in those parts of Europe under Axis control, these models were discussed and often adopted by several dictatorships. This book considers how and why these dictatorships on the periphery of Europe, especially Salazar’s New State in Portugal, inspired some of these regimes’ new political institutions particularly within Europe and Latin America. It pays special attention to how, as they proposed and pursued these authoritarian reforms, these domestic political actors also looked at these institutional models as suitable for their own countries. The volume is ideal for students and scholars of comparative fascism, authoritarian regimes, and European and Latin American modern history and politics.

France and Fascism: February 1934 and the Dynamics of Political Crisis is the first English-language book to examine the most significant political event in interwar France: the Paris riots of February 1934. On 6 February 1934, thousands of fascist rioters almost succeeded in bringing down the French democratic regime. The violence prompted the polarisation of French politics as hundreds of thousands of French citizens joined extreme right-wing paramilitary leagues or the left-wing Popular Front coalition. This ‘French civil war’, the first shots of which were fired in February 1934, would come to an end only at the Liberation of France ten years later. The book challenges the assumption that the riots did not pose a serious threat to French democracy by providing a more balanced historical contextualisation of the events. Each chapter follows a distinctive analytical framework, incorporating the latest research in the field on French interwar politics as well as important new investigations into political violence and the dynamics of political crisis. With a direct focus on the actual processes of the unfolding political crisis and the dynamics of the riots themselves, France and Fascism offers a comprehensive analysis which will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as scholars, in the areas of French history and politics, and fascism and the far right.

During the interwar years France experienced severe political polarization. At the time many observers, particularly on the left, feared that the French right had embraced fascism, generating a fierce debate that has engaged scholars for decades, but has also obscured critical changes in French society and culture during the 1920s and 1930s. This collection of essays shifts the focus away from long-standing controversies in order to examine various elements of the French right, from writers to politicians, social workers to street fighters, in their broader social, cultural, and political contexts. It offers a wide-ranging reassessment of the structures, mentalities, and significance of various conservative and extremist organizations, deepening our understanding of French and European history in a troubled yet fascinating era.

"... Muldoon in action ... [his] rise to power ... stump campaign of 1975, the Muldoon 'circus' ... how he chose his cabinet, implemented his election trump card, the National Superannuation scheme, and reformed the broadcasting system ... Tasman Forests debacle ... 'Moyle affair' and the facing down of Comalco's Don Hibberd ... from the reform of the economy to the crisis of the oil shock and efforts to counterbalance its pressures by establishing a free trade agreement with Australia and a 'Think Big' strategy ... crisis of the coup and countercoup of 1980 ... Springbok tour 1981 ... price freeze of 1982 ... snap election of 1984"--Back cover.