Unveiling Fascism: Ideology, Practice, and Impact

1. Making of the Modern World: Fascism How do you recognize fascism? • The ‘content’: Fascist Ideology? • The ‘action’: Fascist Practice? • A historical approach: What was Fascism? • Fascist Movements and Fascist States

2. Making of the Modern World: Fascism Fascist Movements I: Italy • World War One and the first Italian Fascists • The Biennio Rosso: Social Crisis and the Rise of Fascism • The Fascist March on Rome, October 1922

3. Making of the Modern World: Fascism Fascist Movements II: Germany • The Post-War Crisis and the emergence of Nazism (NSDAP = National Socialist German Workers Party) • The Rise of Nazism at the End of the Weimar Republic • The Nazi take-over of power, January 1933

4. Making of the Modern World: Fascism Fascism and Crisis • The ‘First Wave’: Fascism and the Post-World-War-One Crisis • The ‘Second Wave’: Fascism and the Great Depression • Crisis: Instability and Opportunities

5. Making of the Modern World: Fascism Fascist Regimes • Fascist Dictatorships? The Leadership Principle • Forming a National Community, from above and from below • Anti-Semitism and Racism • The Regime as a Movement: Constant Mobilization

6. Making of the Modern World: Fascism Fascism and War • Fascist Imperialism (Ethiopia, Mediterranean) and Nazi Expansion in the East (Space for Living) • The Enslavement of the Slavic Population • The Murder of European Jewry

7. Making of the Modern World: Fascism Fascist Ideology • Anti-isms: Anti-Marxism, anti-liberalism, anti-Semitism, etc. • The Fascist vision of a new society: a purified and rejuvenated nation that would overcome class struggle • Visions of heroic individualism • Anti-rationalism and the belief in myths

8. Making of the Modern World: Fascism Fascist Practice • Central role of violence, above all against their opponents (Communists, Socialists, Jews) • Violence as a means to create a (masculine) community • Ideology and Practice: The glorification of violence and the fascist will to action

9. Making of the Modern World: Fascism Fascism and Youth • Fascism as a youth movement? • Youth and its ability to build a ‘new society’ played a key role in Fascist ideology. • A generation of fascists? Many fascists, especially Nazis in Germany, had been too young to fight in World War One. They longed to become ‘heroes’ and to create something radically new.