Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe

Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe: Fascist Dictatorships and Liberal Democracies (Historical Connections)

Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe dymystifies the population policies of fascist regimes by looking at them in the wider context of how societies in general reacted to the profound economic changes brought by industrialization.

Until now, aspects of the subject -- racism and sexism in Nazi ideology, Eugenics in England, family allowance schemes and sterilization in France -- have been treated within a strictly national perspective. Maria Sophia Quine's broad, cross-cutting attack fills a major gap in the literature.

Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe is an ambitious comparative approach which will command wide interest from political and social historians, sociologists and political scientists.

Liberal and Fascist Italy: 1900-1945 (Short Oxford History of Italy)

Liberal and Fascist Italy: 1900-1945 (Short Oxford History of Italy)

The period from 1900 to 1945 was one of the most dramatic in Italian history. It embraced two world wars, the crisis of the liberal state, and the advent of a new form of dictatorship destined to leave an imprint on the whole history of Europe. It was also a period in which Italian economy and society began to undergo that process of transformation which led to the modern, industrialized Italy of today. Italian writers and artists responded creatively to change and the contribution to European culture of such figures as Croce, Gramsci, D'Annunzio, Pirandello, De Chirico, or the Futurists was one of primary importance. This volume discusses these developments in depth, paying particular attention to the social and moral conflicts resulting from modernization, war, and the impact of the totalitarian experiment of Fascism. The interaction between foreign and domestic policy is also explored. The final chapter considers three strands of cultural life: visual arts, literature, and social thought.

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Hardcover)

“Fascists,” “Brownshirts,” “jackbooted stormtroopers”—such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?

Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism.

Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term “National socialism”). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights activist.

Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by Hitler's Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in the New Deal.

Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.

These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of Liberal Fascism.