History

Fascism in Europe, 1919-1945 surveys the phenomenon which is still the object of interest and debate over fifty years after its defeat in the Second World War. It introduces the recent scholarship and continuing debates on the nature of fascism as well as the often contentious contributions by foreign historians and political scientists. From the pre-First World War intellectual origins of Fascism to its demise in 1945, this book examines: * the two 'waves' of fascism - in the immediate post-war period and in the late 1920s and early 1930s * whether the European crisis created by the Treaty of Versailles allowed fascism to take root * why fascism came to power in Italy and Germany, but not anywhere else in Europe * fascism's own claim to be an international and internationalist movement * the idea of 'totalitarianism' as the most useful and appropriate way of analyzing the fascist regimes.

In addition to revising our view of the interwar period and the building of European democracies, this book cuts against the grain of most current theorizing in political science by explicitly discussing when and how ideas influence political behavior. Even though German and Swedish Social Democrats belonged to the same transnational political movement and faced similar political and social conditions in their respective countries before and after World War I, they responded very differently to the challenges of democratization and the Great Depression--with crucial consequences for the fates of their countries and the world at large.Explaining why these two social democratic parties acted so differently is the primary task of this book. Berman's answer is that they had very different ideas about politics and economics--what she calls their programmatic beliefs. The Swedish Social Democrats placed themselves at the forefront of the drive for democratization; a decade later they responded to the Depression with a bold new economic program and used it to build a long period of political hegemony. The German Social Democrats, on the other hand, had democracy thrust upon them and then dithered when faced with economic crisis; their haplessness cleared the way for a bolder and more skillful political actor--Adolf Hitler.This provocative book will be of interest to anyone concerned with twentieth-century European history, the transition to democracy problem, or the role of ideas in politics.

Although the political and military aspects of great-power diplomacy in Eastern Europe during the interwar period have been studied extensively, the economic aspects have been relatively neglected. Drawing on documentary material that has only recently been made available, David Kaiser redresses the balance in his discussion of the expansion of German trade with Eastern Europe during the 1930s and the British and French failure to respond to it. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This work provides a sweeping historical analysis of the political development of Western Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Arguing that the evolution of most Western European nations into liberal democracies, social democracies, or fascist regimes was attributable to a discrete set of social class alliances, the author explores the origins and outcomes of the political development in the individual nations. In Britain, France, and Switzerland, countries with a unified middle class, liberal forces established political hegemony before World War I. By coopting considerable sections of the working class with reforms that weakened union movements, liberals essentially excluded the fragmented working class from the political process, remaining in power throughout the inter-war period. In countries with a strong, cohesive working class and a fractured middle class, Luebbert points out, a liberal solution was impossible. In Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia, political coalitions of social democrats and the "family peasantry" emerged as a result of the First World War, leading to social democratic governments. In Italy, Spain, and Germany, on the other hand, the urban middle class united with a peasantry hostile to socialism to facilitate the rise of fascism.

A new edition of this popular, concise introduction to the inter-war period. The author is a major name in this area, and a much-respected authority on the subject This is the only book that covers the inter-war period in this way This book will be relevant to Modern Europe courses taught at most universities The previous edition sold very well

In this volume Europe's leading modern historians offer new insights into two totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century that have profoundly affected world history -- Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union. Until now historians have paid more attention to the similarities between these two regimes than to their differences. Stalinism and Nazism explores the difficult relationship between the history and memory of the traumas inflicted by Nazi and Soviet occupation in several Eastern European countries in the twentieth century. The first part of the volume explores the origins, nature, and organization of Hitler's and Stalin's dictatorial power, the manipulation of violence by the state systems, and the comparative power of the dictator's personal will and the encompassing totalitarian system. The second part examines the legacies of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes in Eastern European countries that experienced both. Stalinism and Nazism features the latest critical perspectives on two of the most influential and deadly political regimes in modern history. Book jacket.

The fourth edition of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century presents an innovative comparison of the origins, development, and demise of the three forms of totalitarianism that emerged in twentieth-century Europe.

Hugh Ragsdale's analysis of East European documentation sheds new light on the Munich Crisis. If Hitler had been stopped at Munich, World War II, as we know it, could not have happened. The Crisis has been thoroughly studied in British, French, and German documents, and, consequently, we have learned that the weakness in the Western position at Munich consisted of the Anglo-French opinion that the Soviet commitment to its allies--France and Czechoslovakia--was utterly unreliable. Ragsdale's findings will contribute to a "considerable shift" of opinion.

The harsh Armistice terms of 1918, the short-lived Weimar Republic, Hindenburg's senile vacillations, and behind-the-scene power plays form the backbone of this excellent study covering German history during the first three-and-a-half decades of the century.

An insightful collection of essays focused on American men, women, and children from a range of economic classes and ethnic backgrounds during the Great Depression. Who were the people waiting in the bread lines and living in Hoovervilles? Who were the migrants heading North and West? Did anyone survive the Depression relatively unscathed? Giving a voice to stories often untold, Great Depression: People and Perspectives covers the full spectrum of American life, portraying the experiences of ordinary citizens during the worst economic crisis in the nation's history. Great Depression shows how specific groups coped with the traumatic upheaval of the times, including rural Americans, women, children, African Americans, and immigrants. In addition, it offers revealing chapters on the conflict between social scientists and policymakers responding to the crisis, the impact of the Depression on the health of U.S. citizens, and the roles that American technology and Hollywood movies played in helping the nation survive. * 11 expert contributors, including well-established scholars who bring new perspectives to the study of the Great Depression * A wide range of primary sources such as news articles, photographs, diaries, and letters that provide a deeper understanding of daily life during the Depression

This is a comparative study of the origins, course and consequences of deepest economic crisis in modern European history. Written with the non-economist in mind, the book explores recent research into the causes of the depression, notably the gold standard system which helped to turn recession into profound depression and to transmit its effects around the world. The book gives equal weight to the political and historical context of economic policy-political attitudes and expectations, institutional opinions, strategic considerations, the legacies and lessons--to explain why European countries chose nationalist routes to recovery. International co-operation offered the best chance for recovery and the book also contains a lively account of why this failed and its consequences for international relations in the 1930s.

One of the classic studies of the Great Depression, featuring a new introduction by the author with insights into the economic crises of 1929 and today. nbsp; In the twenty-five years since its publication, critics and scholars have praised historian Robert McElvaine's sweeping and authoritative history of the Great Depression as one of the best and most readable studies of the era. Combining clear-eyed insight into the machinations of politicians and economists who struggled to revive the battered economy, personal stories from the average people who were hardest hit by an economic crisis beyond their control, and an evocative depiction of the popular culture of the decade, McElvaine paints an epic picture of an America brought to its knees--but also brought together by people's widely shared plight. nbsp; In a new introduction, McElvaine draws striking parallels between the roots of the Great Depression and the economic meltdown that followed in the wake of the credit crisis of 2008. He also examines the resurgence of anti-regulation free market ideology, beginning in the Reagan era, and argues that some economists and politicians revised history and ignored the lessons of the Depression era.

Die fundamentalen Probleme der Wirtschaftskrise in den späten 20er und frühen 30er Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts bleiben nach wie vor eine intellektuelle Herausforderung. Wie kaum ein anderes Datum der jüngsten Weltgeschichte hat der "Schwarze Donnerstag" des 24. Oktober 1929 den Glauben an die Rationalität der Märkte erschüttert und deren Verwundbarkeit aufgezeigt. Die "Große Depression" des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts als - fatales - Ergebnis eines Versuchs zu werten, das Rad der Geschichte zurückzudrehen und mit Kontrolle, Protektionismus, Nationalismus und Autarkie dem freien Verkehr von Waren, Kapitalströmen und nicht zuletzt Menschen zu begegnen, ist eine der Botschaften dieses Bandes.