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The 1930s: Capitalism on Trial

David Ellwood

in The Shock of America: Europe and the Challenge of the Century

The Wall St crisis of 1929 intensified but did not alter an emerging intellectual critique of the new forms of consumerist society emerging in America. Some of these views flirted with ... More

The Wall St crisis of 1929 intensified but did not alter an emerging intellectual critique of the new forms of consumerist society emerging in America. Some of these views flirted with totalitarianism but in reality the three major regimes developed their own distinctive relationship with the America-as-future question. Mussolini's Italy showed the most complex pattern, as the Duce was lionised by parts of the US élite. The Soviets thought they could borrow what they needed from US industry and Stalin refused to develop a specific analysis of American capitalism as such. Hitler had done so, but acted upon it only spasmodically, developing his own versions of Hollywood and Fordism. Meanwhile the radiant force of American corporations permeated Nazi Germany, while in the shadows a counter-culture listened to jazz and read book after book on the US.Less

Little Fascists?

Daniel Kupfert Heller

in Jabotinsky's Children: Polish Jews and the Rise of Right-Wing Zionism

This chapter focuses on 1928–1931, the years in which Betar began its transformation into a mass movement in Poland. Across Europe, admirers of Fascist Italy were sifting through Benito Mussolini's ... More

This chapter focuses on 1928–1931, the years in which Betar began its transformation into a mass movement in Poland. Across Europe, admirers of Fascist Italy were sifting through Benito Mussolini's political program in search of an antidote to their own political challenges. Fascist ideology in Italy was replete with contradictions and in a state of perpetual flux. Fascist leaders often used this ideological ambiguity to their advantage. The chapter then looks at the workshops of Betar's cultural architects, as they designed an array of myths and rituals linking the group to Judaism and ancient Jewish history, and explores how these projects provided fertile ground for Betar's leaders to determine the extent to which they would embrace the beliefs and behaviors they associated with fascism.Less

The New (Old) Order, 1936–1942

Sasha D. Pack

in The Deepest Border: The Strait of Gibraltar and the Making of the Modern Hispano-African Borderland

This chapter examines the fate of trans-Gibraltar region during Spanish Civil War and the early stages of World War II. Although the insurgent army of Francisco Franco quickly took control of ... More

This chapter examines the fate of trans-Gibraltar region during Spanish Civil War and the early stages of World War II. Although the insurgent army of Francisco Franco quickly took control of northern Morocco and southern Spain and invited its Nazi and Fascist allies to the strategically crucial region, the Entente order of 1904 proved resilient. New evidence is introduced detailing the Franco movement’s success in marshaling anti-French, anti-Semitic, and pro-German sentiments to recruit Muslim support, promising the construction of a new Hispano-Moroccan bulwark in the western Mediterranean. Other new documents indicate how quickly this enthusiasm cooled, however, as it became clear that Nazi agents were preparing to seize a position in northwest Africa without giving consideration for Spanish interests, while the British and much of the Jewish community of Tangier remained supportive of Spanish interests in Morocco.Less

Introduction

Reto Hofmann

in The Fascist Effect: Japan and Italy, 1915-1952

This book explores the ideological links that tied Japan to Italy during the period 1915–1952. More specifically, it considers why Japanese intellectuals, writers, activists, and politicians, ... More

This book explores the ideological links that tied Japan to Italy during the period 1915–1952. More specifically, it considers why Japanese intellectuals, writers, activists, and politicians, although conscious of the many points of intersection between their politics and those of Benito Mussolini, were so ambivalent about the comparability of Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy. To elucidate the scope of the Japanese encounter with fascism, the book relies on individuals, theater plays, official documents, popular literature, newspapers, and philosophical treatises. In discussing how contemporary Japanese understood fascism, the book rethinks the history of Japan as part of a wider, interconnected, history of fascism. It argues that Japanese politics and ideology in the first half of the twentieth century were intertwined with European fascism.Less

Competing Empires in Transnational Asia

Michael Baskett

in The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan

This chapter examines Japan's struggle to create and define its empire as a unique entity vis-à-vis the West. It first considers how Japan clashed with Hollywood for market domination and the “hearts ... More

This chapter examines Japan's struggle to create and define its empire as a unique entity vis-à-vis the West. It first considers how Japan clashed with Hollywood for market domination and the “hearts and minds” of Asians and how the rise of the Japanese empire in Asia threatened American film dominance there, triggering a film war. Japan restricted access to Asian markets, censored or banned American films, and finally conducted a comprehensive embargo on all Hollywood films. This prohibition led to secret meetings among Japanese film industry representatives, Hollywood representatives, and the U.S. Department of Commerce in which the United States threatened to stain Japan's national reputation by making Japanese villains in American films. The chapter analyzes Japan's paradoxical status as a member nation of the Axis at a time when it was preaching anti-Westernism throughout Asia. It also discusses the interactions among the cinemas of imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy on the legislative, distribution, and exhibition levels.Less

The Dark Side of the Moon

Richard Taruskin

in The Danger of Music and Other Anti-Utopian Essays

This chapter presents an essay on the book Music in Fascist Italy by Harvey Sachs, reviewing the history of music in fascist Italy presented in the book with emphasis on Italian conductor Arturo ... More

This chapter presents an essay on the book Music in Fascist Italy by Harvey Sachs, reviewing the history of music in fascist Italy presented in the book with emphasis on Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini. It criticizes Sachs for prejudging the phenomenon of music under fascism in the light of Toscanini's anti-fascism. Data presented in the book by Sachs shows how fashionable modernism was in fascist Italy, and how attractive the policies of the fascist state were to modernists. Furthermore, the essay criticizes Toscanini for having double standards related to fascism and democracy, as he tyrannized the musicians under him, lived a life of seigneur, and exacted astronomical payments. The double standards that mar this book show how little we have come to terms with the phenomenon of fascism with respect to the arts. The history of music in fascist Italy was the least interesting and important phase of the relationship between twentieth century music and fascism.Less

Italian Historical Writing

Stuart Woolf

in The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 5: Historical Writing Since 1945

This chapter examines the relations between party and history in post-Fascist Italy, foregrounding Italy’s most distinctive contribution to post-war historical method—microstoria. Microhistory’s ... More

This chapter examines the relations between party and history in post-Fascist Italy, foregrounding Italy’s most distinctive contribution to post-war historical method—microstoria. Microhistory’s exponents have proposed a radical challenge, not only to the traditionally dominant form of writing history from the viewpoint of the state and ruling elites, but more fundamentally to the generalizing assumptions of the social sciences. Microhistorians place in doubt the basic conviction of historical positivism that political-institutional ‘facts’ constitute the subject matter of history, and that the archival documentation, subject to philologically appropriate methods, provides direct and reliable evidence. However, they are equally critical of the influence on historical interpretation of the functionalist presuppositions on which social scientists construct their theories of the normative systems that regulate societies and economies, and the macroconcepts that are deployed to explain historical change over time, such as capitalist transformation, the evolution of the modern state, progress, modernization, class, and so on.Less

A League of Their Own

in Between States: The Transylvanian Question and the European Idea during World War II

This chapter shows how Hungarian and Romanian statesmen clung to minority rights rhetoric through the darkest days of the war, forcing Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to play the role of minority ... More

This chapter shows how Hungarian and Romanian statesmen clung to minority rights rhetoric through the darkest days of the war, forcing Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to play the role of minority rights watchdog for both states, in a sense picking up where the League of Nations had left off. Their mediation efforts implicitly confirmed the claim that formed the basis for the League system, namely, that minorities constituted “obligations of international concern”.Less

The Soviet Decision to Intervene Militarily July–October 1936

StanLey G. Payne

in The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism

This chapter discusses the greater concern Moscow felt at the beginning of the war, as compared to that felt in Berlin or Rome. Moscow had a good deal of political capital invested in Spain, not ... More

This chapter discusses the greater concern Moscow felt at the beginning of the war, as compared to that felt in Berlin or Rome. Moscow had a good deal of political capital invested in Spain, not merely in the PCE but as one of the two bastions of the Popular Front. Additionally, a much more radicalized situation offered the USSR a greater long-term opportunity in Spain than in France. The USSR was the only power that had been intervening systematically in Spanish affairs before the beginning of the Civil War, operating its own political party within the country and at long last achieving some success. By comparison, Nazi Germany limited itself to small-scale propaganda funding, and Fascist Italy, while engaging in more extensive cultural and propaganda activity, otherwise did no more than pay a small subsidy to the Falangist party.Less