UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
FALL SEMESTER 2016
HISTORY 300/012: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Thursday, 26 August 2016:
Pinning down that which cannot be pinned
down:
Toward a definition of fascism
Key Terms: Typology, Marxism, fascism vs. Fascism
I. Typologies
(models) of fascism and their problems
II. Marxist
approaches to fascism and their problems
III. Weberian/Neo-Weberian
approaches to fascism
and their problems
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
FALL SEMESTER 2016
HISTORY 300/012: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Tuesday, 30 August 2016:
Fascism’s
antecedent: the rise of the Radical Right in the 19th Century
Key Terms:
totalitarianism, palengenesis, governmentality
(Michel Foucault), ubermensch, Darwinism and Social Darwinism,
eugenics, “radical right”
I. Brief
recap of approaches to fascism
A. Marxist, Neo-Weberian and Totalitarian
understandings and their problems
B. Ultimately fascism is too diverse and
variegated to define, but that does not mean
that we can’t say anything at all about it.
II. Searching
for historical origins of fascism
A. Reformation Intolerance? Enlightenment
restructuring of society?
B. Late 19th Century Revolt against
Reason
1. Sigmund
Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche
2. Crowd Psychology and Violence: Gustave LeBon and Georges Sorel
3. Charles Darwin, Social Darwinism, and the
Rise of Racialist Thinking
III. If we
really want to understand fascism, we must
explore the CONTEXT of the late 19th Century and
the rise of the radical right
A. The frustrated pseudo-scientists and
Professionals shut out of academies who enter politics
B. What the “radical right” fought for/against:
1. The
definition of the nation
2. Racial
inclusivity
3. Feminism
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
FALL SEMESTER 2016
HISTORY 300/012: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Thursday, 30 September 2016:
The rise of
the Radical Right in the 19th Century:
The Case
Study of France
Key Terms:
“radical right”, Boulanger (Boulangerists),
Dreyfus Affair, Maurice Barrès, Charles Maurras, Action Française
(founded 1899),
I. If we
really want to understand fascism, we must
explore the CONTEXT of the late 19th Century and
the rise of the radical right
A. The frustrated pseudo-scientists and
Professionals shut out of academies who enter politics
B. What the “radical right” fought for/against:
1. The
definition of the nation
2. Racial
inclusivity
3. Feminism
II. A Case
Study of the Radical Right: France
A. The Politics of the Third Republic
1. The Boulanger Affair (1889)
2. The Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906)
B. The French Radical Right
1. Barrès and the
Patriotic League
2. Maurras and
Action Française
C. Summary. The French Radical Right results
from the meeting of 4 tendencies:
·
1) Royalists
and Catholics marginalized and radicalized by successive defeats at the hands
of republicans
·
2) Catholic populists desperate to resist
secularization and capture leadership of the proletariat from the socialists
·
3) Nationalists annoyed by the government’s apparent
lack of interest in revenge against Germany
·
4) The nationalist and populist wing of socialism, of
which Barrès tried to capture the leadership.
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
FALL SEMESTER 2016
HISTORY 300/012: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Tuesday, 6 September:
Authoritarian Nationalism before WW1,
continued
Key Terms: ANI
(Italian Nationalist Association), Volkish culture
and ideology, German Landowners’ League, Pan-German league, Union of the
Russian People (Black Hundreds),
I. Review of the French Radical Right
II. Other examples of the Rise of
Authoritarianisms and Authoritarian Nationalisms
A.
Italy: Alfredo
Rocco and the Italian Nationalist Association (ANI)
B.
Authoritarianism, racism, and anti-Semitism in Germany
C.
Russia and the Black Hundreds
D.
British conservatives and the fear of the
disintegration of the UK
III. THE GREAT WAR, THE RESULTANT PEACE TREATISES, AND THE ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES OF THE INTERWAR YEARS FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED THE WHOLE SITUATION.
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
FALL SEMESTER 2016
HISTORY 300/012: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Thursday, 8 September 2016:
World War I and its Aftermath
What made this war so particularly terrible for the
military combatants as well as civilians back on the home front? How did
this trauma inform the bourgeoning fascist or pre-fascists movements of Europe):
1)
The experience of the war created an alternative national, and
radicalized culture that was often hostile to the governments responsible for
the War and its aftermath.
2)
The early jingoistic enthusiasm for the War made the unfolding of the war
particularly painful and disillusioning.
3)
The experience of the war, specifically the protracted trench warfare,
seemed to prove folks like Nietzsche and Freud were right and that Western
Civilization was not the be all end all positivist/rationalist community.
4)
One of the effects of the strong interventionist state including that in
the West, where liberal democracies had to suspend civil liberties, was to
condition populations into seeing authoritarianism as an efficacious and viable
form of rule
5)
Among other things, the lost generation of young men who died in the War
created a political vacuum for figures like Mussolini and Hitler to ascend to
positions of political power.
6)
Especially for Germany and Italy, the Treaty of Versailles (1919) was a
source of tremendous national pain, dishonor, embarrassment, which would fuel
ultranationalist and fascist hopes for revenge and/or rebirth for their
nations.
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/012:
HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Tuesday, 13 September
2016:
The Origins of Italian Fascism
Alert: Office Hours tomorrow will be
from 9:45AM to 11:15AM
Key Terms: Trasformismo, Battle
of Caporetto, Ethiopian War (1895-6), Benito Mussolini, Futurists, Fasci Italiano di Combattimento, “Black
Shirts” (squadristi), Gabrieli
D’Annunzio
I.
Unfinished
business from my missed lecture
A. Discussing Paper Assignment due 27 September
2016
B. Summarizing World War I and it’s
Trauma on Europe in the early 20th Century
II.
United Italy
(1861) and its problems
A.
Marquis d’Azeglio: “Now that
we have built
B.
The Catholic
Church as Obstacle to Nation-Building
C.
Trasformismo and the contribution to general apathy and cynicism
for Italian Liberalism
D.
The Humiliation
of the Ethiopian campaign and the Battle of Edowa or
Adwa (1 March 1896)
E.
III.
Benito Mussolini,
his early years
A.
Troubled
childhood
B.
Dodges draft and
embraces socialism in
C.
World War I, his
about face, and his outser from Italian Socialism
IV.
Ingredients for
the First Fascism
A.
Revolutionary syndicalists
B.
The Futurists
C.
1919 and the Fasci Italiano di Combattimento
V.
Post World War I
Chaos
A.
The Biennio Rosso and Socialist Agitation
B.
The Squadristi (Black Shirt’s and Fascism’s response)
C.
D’Annunzio and
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 15 September 2016:
The Fascist Seizure of Power
Key Terms: Biennio Rosso, squadristi,
Gabriele D’Annunzio, Fiume, ras, March on Rome (28-29 October 1922), PNF (National
Fascist Party), MVSN (National Security Volunteer Militia), Acerbo Law (July
1923), Giacomo Matteotti
Announcement:
Gil Garceti talk today, Pearl Auditorium, 5PM
I. I want us to understand that Fascism grew
and changed significantly between the original ideas of the Fasci di combattimento and the Platform of the
PNF. How and why did this occur?
A. What
did Fiume and D’Annunzio expose?
B. Which
groupings within “Fascism” did Mussolini have to navigate through as he moved
toward becoming Dictator?
II. From
Mussolini’s Premiership to his Dictatorship
A.
Strong numbers, but poor election results in 1921… the
founding of the PNF (November 1921)
B.
The Ras, the March on Rome (28 October 1922), and Mussolini’s
Premiership (begins 29 October 1922).
C.
The Fascist Grand Council, the MVSN, and the hierarchy
pointing to Mussolini
D.
The April 1924 elections and the Fascsist
landslide
E.
The Matteotti Crisi
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Tuesday, 20 September 2016:
Fascism in Power
Key Terms: MVSN
(National Security Volunteer Militia), Acerbo Law (July 1923), Giacomo Matteotti, Lateran Pact (1929…see Stone, ed. Doc. 12),
I. Understanding
the stakes involved with the March on Rome
A. Mussolini, the Ras, the Blackshirts
are not monolithic in vision/goals
B. Liberals (who aren’t very liberal) and
elites caught between rock and hard place (why do they side with Fascists?)
II. Italian
politics, 1922-1925
A.
The Fascist Grand Council, the MVSN, and the hierarchy
pointing to Mussolini
B.
The April 1924 elections and the Fascsist
landslide
C.
The Matteotti Crisis
III. Features
of the Fascist Totalitarian(ish) State
A. Non-Competitive Political Nature
1. Bans opposition
2. Censorship and Freedom of the Press
3. Supervision/Oversight
4. Bans local elections
B. Fascism and the Catholic Church
1. From antagonism to the Lateran Pacts
2. Effects of Church/State reunion
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 22 September 2016:
Fascism in Power, Part II
Key Terms: Opera
Nazionale Dopolavoro (National Recreation or Afterwork Organization), Opera
Nazionale ed Maternita ed Infanzia (ONMI), Fasci Femenelli
I.
The Fascist Society, Economy, and Culture
A. Labor
and the Corporatist State
B. Fascist
Art and Aesthetics
II.
World War I, the interwar period, and the New Woman in
Italy
A.
Men at the Front, Women working at home front
B.
Gender Crisis:
The “New Woman” and her fashion and behavior
C.
Italian Women and Fascism
III.
Discussion: How
fascism appealed to women, and was the appeal effective?
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Tuesday, 27 September 2016:
Contextualizing the Rise of Nazism
Key Terms: Weimar
Republic (1918-1933), Friekorps,
I. Sketching out the “soup” from which Nazism
arose in Wilhelmine Germany:
A.
Excitement for
World War I and subsequent disillusionment through scenes from Louis
Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western
Front (1930) based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque
B.
Völkisch nationalism and whether we can draw a straight line
from it to Nazism
C.
Aryanism and the
new Anti-Semitism
II. The
Aftermath and Humiliation of the War and the Treaty of Versailles
A. The unpopular Republic
B. Punitive terms
for Germany (reparations, reduction of military resources, etc.)
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 29 September 2016:
The Nazi Conquest of State
Key Terms: Wolfgang
Kapp, Adolph Hitler (1889-1945), German Workers Party
(DAP later NASDP or Nazis), National Socialist German Workers Party (NASDP the
Nazis), The S.A. (Sturmabteilung or Storm Troopers), Beer Hall Putsch in Munich
(8-9 November 1923)
II. Adolph
Hitler and the NASDP’s attempted coup in November 1923
A. Important results
B. Why did Hitler fail in 1923 but not in
1933?
III. Discussion: What was appealing Germans in 1930 to Nazism?
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Tuesday, 4 October 2016
The Conquest of State, continued
Key Terms: Schutzstaffel
(S.S. or Defense Force), Heinrich Himmler, Marshall Paul von Hindenburg,
Enabling Act, Gleischaltung, Gestapo
I.
Nazism’s growth in the Aftermath of the
Great Depression
A.
The Party of the Young and Vital
B.
Himmler’s elite SS
II.
The Nazi Seizure of Power, 1930-33
A.
President Hindenburg’s abuse of his
political powers
B.
Extraordinary Nazi electioneering/campaigning
techniques
C.
Spring 1932 elections: Nazis win 230 seats but Papen dissolves the
Parliament; Fall 1932: Nazis win 196 seats
D.
30 Jan 1933: Hitler is made Chancellor
III.
The
A.
Hermann Göring
is named Minister of Interior, purges police and legitimates the SA and SA
Terror.
B.
27 February 1933: Reichstag fire blamed on Communists
C.
23 March 1933: Enabling Act
D.
Hitler purges the SA on the Knight of
the Long Knives, 30 June 1934
E.
Implementing Gleischaltung
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 6 October 2016:
The Nazis, Women, and the Racial State
Key Words:
Kinder, Küche, Kirche
(Children, Kitchen, Church); Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, Law for the Prevention
of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring (July 1933)
I.
Implementing Gleischaltung beyond 1933
A. Revisit Claire Hall’s piece on
the Gestapo and how totalitarian social control looks like
II.
Women and the Nazi State
A.
Hitler’s and the Nazis’ anti-feminism
B.
Efforts to drive back working women into
the home an grow the population
III.
Nazi racialist ideologies and policies
A.
Growing the Master Aryan Race
B.
July 1933: Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily
Diseased Offspring
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Tuesday, 18 October 2016:
On the Diffusion of Fascism and Nazism in Interwar Europe
Key Terms: Corneliu Codreanu, Iron Guard (Legion of the Archangel Michael),
Croix de Feu, Oswald Mosely, British Union of Fascists (1932),
I. Example
of the diffusion of Fascism/Nazism #1: Romania
A. WWI Victor rewarded with
expansion but with various minorities (Germans, Hungarians, Jews)
B. Anti-Semitic youth,
university students, and professionals
C. Interesting story of Codreanu, his arrest (1924) and acquittal (1925).
D. The Iron Guard: more than imitators of Nazis
II. Fascism
in the Inter-War democracies
A.
Mussolini’s efforts for a Fascist
International
B. Rivalry between Fascist
Italy and Nazi Germany until about 1936
C. The rise of some fascist
groups and movements that weren’t particularly fascist (like the Jeunesses patriotes in
France) and non-fascists groups that were fascist (such as the Croix de Feu)
D. Fascism in Britain?
1. Context: breakdown of
empire and economic stagnation
2. British Union of Fascists
3. Why fascism fails in
Britain
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 20 October 2016:
The Diffusion of Fascism/Nazism, continued
Key Words:
American-German Bund, Fr. Charles Coughlin (National Union for Social
Justice), Austrian Home Guard (Heimwehr)
When: Oct 20,
2016 - 03:00pm - Oct 20, 2016 - 05:00pm
Where: History
Department Common Room, Mesa Vista Hall 1104
Dr. Jason Scott Smith, winner of the 2015-2016 Snead-Wertheim Endowed Lectureship in History and Anthropology, will give a talk on "The New Deal as Development: Exporting Capitalism to the Postwar World" on Thursday, October 20, 2016 from 3:00-5:00 in the History Department Common Room.
I. Fascism
in the USA?
A. The revival of the KKK (2 to 8 Million in
1920s)
B. German-American Bund and
Fr. Coughlin’s National Union for Social Justice
II. What does the
appearance but apparent failure of fascism say in crisis-ridden Britain,
France, and the USA say about fascism?
III. Fascism in Eastern
Europe: In Eastern Europe, post-war
politics usually meant dictatorship of a majority, NOT toleration nor
multiculturalism
A. How come no fascism in Czechoslovakia?
B. Dictatorships that create mass parties
(Poland and Yugoslavia)
C. Semi-Authoritarian Hungary under Miklos
Horthy and pro-Nazis like the Iron Cross.
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FALL 2016
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Tuesday, 25 October 2016:
The Case of Interwar Iberia
Key Terms: caciquismo, Battle of Annual (Morocco, 1921), Miguel
Antonio Primo de Rivera, Patriotic Union (Unión
Pátriotica)
I. Inter-war Eastern Europe as the site of
experimentation with fascism and authoritarianism
A. Pay
special attention to Payne’s chapters on Eastern Europe as they show the
difficulty in generalizing/categorizing fascism:
1) Competing
forms of fascism within a country *(see
Austro-Nazis versus Austro-Fascists in
Austria)
2) Romania:
example of Iron Cross at odds with
conservative
authoritarian state
II. Iberia
before the Spanish Civil War
A. 19th Century Spain and Portugal
and a troubled relationship with Liberalism/Constitutional
Monarchy
B. World War I: Spain neutral; Portugal with
the Allies (though they perform poorly)
C. The Breakdown of the Restoration Regime in
Spain
a. Despite
neutrality, Spain sees the same class antagonism as the Rest of Europe
b. Crisis
of confidence after Annual 1921
III. Primo de
Rivera Dicatorship, 1923-1929/30
A. How fascists? How not?
B. Ben-Ami’s assessment: Primo paved the way for Franco
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 27 October 2016:
The Spanish Civil War and the Iberian
Dictatorships
Key Terms:
Falange Española, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, General Francisco
Franco, Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, Antonio Salazar, Estado Novo
I. Spain’s
Second Republic, 1931-1936
A. Radical Biennium
B. “Black” Biennium, 1933-1935
II. The
Spanish Civil War (July 1936-Feb 1939)
A. Franco’s Coup attempt
B. Foreign Intervention: Spain as the “Pregame”
to WWII
C. Spanish Fascism: Jose Antonio’s Falange
III. The Franco
Dictatorship, 1939-1975
A. The juggling of the political “Families”
B. Making everyone “fascist”
C. Violence, Stability, and order
IV. The Salazar
Estado Novo in Portugal, 1926-1968
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Tuesday, 2 November 2016:
Fascism and Nazism in Race
Key Terms: Einzatsgruppen,
Final Solutions (1942)
I. Fascism
and Nazism were both racist, but Fascism
was not
racist in the manner Naziism was
A. What do we mean by an “anti-racist”?
B. Biological racism
C. Cultural racism (Assimilationism)
II. Nazi
Racism and Anti-Semitism
A. Critics see Nazi racism tied to achieve
other goals
1. Marxists
see antisemitism as a way capitalist dupe workers
2. Weberians focus on the Jew as symbol of hated modernity
B. Nazis saw race as primary mover in world
(Biological)
C. Goals behind Nazi racism/anti-Semitism
D. Milestones in Nazi persecution of Jews and
others
III. Fascism,
racism, and the nation
A. Not initially wedded to racism (Mussolini
more concerned with international fascism)
B. Fascist Italy’s racism laws (late 1930s)
result from rapprochement with Nazis
C. Many Italians helped Jews escape rather
than comply with Final solution
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 4 November 2016:
The milieu of Anti-semitism/racism
in
World War II Eastern Europe
Key Term: Jedwabne, 9-10 November 1941,
I. An open
discussion on Jan T. Gross’s Neighbors
* Items to consider include:
· Why does
Gross emphasize the label neighbors to the victims and perpetrators of the pogram?
· Polish
reception to the 2001 publication? Difficulty of reconciling the “Poles as
victims” discourse…
· Pg. 47:
would the massacre have occurred without the Nazis? Does that implicate the
Nazis for blame/responsibility?
· Why did Jedwabne residents kill 1600 Jews? Why did others not do
anything to stop the massacre? What could have been done
· What does
“Holocaust” mean given the context of Jedwabne NOT
being with the constraints or limits of Germany or German controlled space
(like Dacau, Auschwitz, etc.)
HISTORY 300/005: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Tuesday, Thursday, 8 and 10 November 2016 and Tuesday, 15 November
2016:
Nazism, Fascism, fascism, and World War II
Key Terms: Luftwaffe, Rome-Berlin Axis, Anschluss,
Appeasement, Neville Chamberlain, Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty (Aug. 23,
1939), Vichy France, Marshall Pétain, Pierre Laval.
I. Introduction: fascism’s
association with World War II
A. fascism
responsible for the war, specifically Hitler and the Nazis in 1939
B. Nazi
Germany came to control almost all of Europe
II. Remembering
what about fascism made it have a predilection to War
III. The
path to Hitler’s War
A. Provocations: Withdrawal from League of Nations in 1933;
Non-Aggression Pact with Poland in 1934; attempted Nazi coup in Austria in
1934; conscription and building up of the Luftwaffe (1935); Saar plebiscite
(January 1935); reoccupation of Rhineland (March 1936)
B. Let’s not forget Mussolini too: Invasion of Ethiopia (1935); Joins Hitler and
Nazi German support of Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939); Rome-Berlin
Axis (July 1936); allows Hitler Austria in 1938.
IV. The
Munich Crisis: The Climax of Appeasement
A.
Annexation (Anschluss) of Austria (March 1938)
B. Hitler’s sights on Czechoslovakia
1. Setting the groundwork
2. Chamberlain,
Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini meet in September 1938
3. Czechoslovakia
forced to sign its death warrant
V. End of Appeasement
A. Molotov-Ribbentrop
Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union
B. Germans
Invade Poland on September 1, 1939 to touch off the War (The Soviet Union
invades Poland from the East too)
VI. Years of Axis Triumph,
1939-1942
A. German
and Soviet campaigns in Scandinavia (Spring of 1940)
B. May
10, 1940: Germany marches into
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemborg, and France
C. Establishment
of Vichy France, Summer 1940.
HISTORY 300/012: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 17 November 2016:
(f)ascism,
Women, and Class
Key Terms:
Pilar Primo de Rivera, Sección Femenina (Spain), National
Socialist Frauenschaft (NSF),
I. The fascists’ paradox:
the imagined community of
the masses, bunches amidst the fact
that it never
occurred to them that classes and
genders would
disappear.
II. (f)ascism and
masculinity
A. Gendered nationalism
B. Homosexuality,
Homoeroticism, and Homophobia (the Case of Ernst Röhm)
III. Another
fascists’ paradox: although fascists
wanted women to remain in the home, they politicized the domestic
A. Feminisms (yes, plural) and fascist
anti-feminism
B. Women,
wives, and mothers in the service of the state
IV. Fascism and
class: the reintegration of workers to the national community required the
elimination of political influences and identities
A. Corportatism and
its open questions
B. Fascism and Business/Capitalism
Tuesday, 29
November 2016
Cuadra, Nathan K.
D. Bracher, The
German Dictatorship
Hererra, Anthony S. Bachrach & S. Leukert, State of Deception
Horner, Lucas F.
Fischer, From Kaiserreich
to Third Reich
Hurst, Kaymon S.
Kuhl, The Nazi Connection:
Eugenics, American Racism …
Livingood, Justin C. Koonz, The Nazi Conscience
López, Kevin G.W. Blackburn, Education in the Third Reich
Pelligrino, Spencer R.
Rosenbaum, Explaining Hitler
Trujillo-Bustos, Camela E.D.
Heineman, What
difference does a Husband Make?
Valdez, Victor R.
Burden, The Nuremburg Party Rallies
Thursday, 1
December 2016
Baca, Arika A. Cazorla, Fear and
Progress (in Franco’s Spain)
Begay, Summer M.J.
Meskill, Hitler and Japan
Danaher, Greg H.
Rousso, The Vichy Syndrome
Farnham, Thomas M. Mazower, Inside
Hitler’s Greece
Hausman, Joe T.
Redman, Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism
Magenis, Feena C. Cross, The Fascists in Britain
Morris, Molly E. Paulicelli , Fashion under Fascism
Paul, Richard R. Paxton, Vichy France
Tuesday, 6
December 2016
Hubbard, Vaughn D.
King, Lyndon LaRouche
and the New American Fascism
Jackson, Jasmyn J.
Stephenson, Women in Nazi Germany
Marquez, Michael R.J. Alexander, The Perón Era
Morse, Erin S. Candey, American Nazis
Szabat, Daniel N.
McClean, Behind the Mask of Chivalry
HISTORY 300/012: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Prof. E.A. Sanabria
Thursday, 8 December 2016:
The Aftermath of fascism
Key Terms: Italian Social
Movement (MSI), Jean-Marie Le Pen, National Front (NF), Vladimir Zhirinovsky,
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Putin,
I. Introduction: There is
no denying the appearance of modern,
contemporaneous
manifestations of groupings inspired by
Fascism and Nazism
II. Some Case Studies
A. The Italian MSI: Post-war neo-Fascist,
merges at first with
most far-right elements of the Christian
Democrats, then
with Berlusconi’s
party as Alleanza Nationale
B. Le Pen’s NF in France: loving democracy
but hating
democratic tolerance and plurality in preference
to the
True France
C. Russia and Communist fascism?
III. The modern far-right’s
boogeyman is not that far off from the
interwar
fascist boogeyman: Modernity
(Globalization) and the
Other (immigrants,
foreigners, etc.)
IV. What do we do now?
Americans are no wiser than the
Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one
advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to
do so. Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the
circumstances of today.
1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely
given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more
repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked.
You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches
authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.
2. Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a
newspaper. Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you are making
them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves.
They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.
3. Recall professional ethics. When the leaders of state set a negative
example, professional commitments to just practice become much more important.
It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers, and it is hard to have
show trials without judges.
4. When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the
expansive use of "terrorism" and "extremism." Be alive to
the fatal notions of "exception" and "emergency." Be angry
about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.
5. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the
terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either
await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think of the Reichstag
fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of power, the
end of opposition parties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Don't fall for it.
6. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the
phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to
convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don't use the internet before
bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to read?
Perhaps "The Power of the Powerless" by Václav
Havel, 1984 by George Orwell, The Captive Mind by Czesław
Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah
Arendt, or Nothing is True and Everything is Possible
by Peter Pomerantsev.
7. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along.
It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease,
there is no freedom. And the moment you set an example, the spell of the status
quo is broken, and others will follow.
8. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is
true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to
do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for
the most blinding lights.
9. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long
articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media.
Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you. Learn about
sites that investigate foreign propaganda pushes.
10. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair
and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in
unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
11. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to
stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers,
and come to understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a
culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of
your daily life.
12. Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the
other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them
yourself and set an example for others to do so.
13. Hinder the one-party state. The parties that took over states were once
something else. They exploited a historical moment to make political life
impossible for their rivals. Vote in local and state elections while you can.
14. Give regularly to good causes, if you can. Pick a charity and set up
autopay. Then you will know that you have made a free choice that is supporting
civil society helping others doing something good.
15. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you
to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is
skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using
it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any
legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a blackmail state, looking for the
hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too many hooks.
16. Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or
make new friends abroad. The present difficulties here are an element of a
general trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure
you and your family have passports.
17. Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always
claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with
torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader
paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is
over.
18. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a
weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of
the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing
irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this means,
contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about training in
professional ethics.)
19. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is
prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.
20. Be a patriot. The incoming president is not. Set a
good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need
it.
--Timothy Snyder, Housum Professor of
History, Yale University,
15 November 2016.
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(PS: If this is useful to you, please print it out and pass it around!
1 December 2016)
(PPS: I removed a reference to a website, which as friends have pointed out is
too context-specific for what has become a public and widely-read list. 2
December 2016)