European Aristocracies and the Radical Right, 1918-1939

ISBN 10: 0199231737 ISBN 13: 9780199231737

Casa editrice: OUP Oxford, 2007

This volume brings together the most recent research on European aristocracies in the first half of the twentieth century. An international array of social and political historians analyses the aristocracies of eleven countries at a particularly testing time: the interwar years. After the First World War aristocrats were confronted with revolutions, republics, and an influx of 'Bolshevist' ideas. Debates about a new order in which aristocrats would play a leading part took place in all countries after 1918. The Mussolini model, in particular, seemed an ideal solution and had an impact on aristocrats all over Europe. Here the exchange of ideas between networks of related aristocratic families played a part in spreading pro-fascist ideas. Anti-Semitism, anti-Bolshevism, and a belief in charismatic leadership also led to admiration of leaders such as Horthy and Franco. In all countries radical right-wing movements tried to recruit aristocrats as symbolic if not strategic figureheads. Is it possible, therefore, to speak of a last flourishing of the aristocracy in countries where fascist or authoritarian regimes were successful? Or are we falling for a left-wing conspiracy theory by overestimating the aristocracy's political prowess and failing to see that they often stood as a conservative bulwark against the radical right? The book shows that if radical right-wing parties could not offer new avenues to power centres, aristocrats, despite a natural predisposition, were not tempted to join, or soon lost interest. Yet their flirtations and short-term entanglements with these movements show that they played a destructive role in the great crisis years of parliamentarism.

Le informazioni nella sezione "Riassunto" possono far riferimento a edizioni diverse di questo titolo.

Recensione:

...eleven disparate contributions...constitute a series of finely drawn, nuanced cameo portraits of the tangled relationship between aristocrats and the radical right...a highly crafted product of intellectual labour...this book has considerable value... (Roger Griffin The English Historical Review)

This volume brings together the most recent research on European aristocracies in the first half of the twentieth century. (Spartacus Review)

...thorough and perceptive...an ambitious and impressive work of comparative history, the book provides vital analysis on the neglected subject of European aristocrats' leadership and participation in the era's far-right movements. (Nancy Collins, British Scholar Journal)

Contenuti:

1: Karina Urbach: Introduction
Part I: Western Europe
2: Stephan Malinowski: A Counter-Revolution d'outre-tombe: Notes on the French Aristocracy and the Extreme Right during the Third Republic and the Vichy Regime
3: Jan De Maeyer: Between d�fence social and Anti-Communism: the Belgian Aristocracy in the Interwar Period
4: Karina Urbach: Age of no Extremes? The British Aristocracy between the House of Lords and the Mosley Movement
5: Hans de Valk: Between Distance and Attraction: Dutch Aristocracy and the Political Right Wing in the Interwar Period
Part II: Southern Europe
6: Jens Petersen: The Italian Aristocracy, the Savoy Monarchy, and Fascism
7: Carlos Collado Seidel: Aristocracy, Fascism, and the Franco Dictatorship (1931-1945)
Part III: Central and Eastern Europe
8: Eckart Conze: 'Only a dictator can help us now': Aristocracy and the Radical Right in Germany Between the Wars
9: Eagle Glassheim: Genteel Nationalists: Nobles and Fascism in Interwar Czechoslovakia
10: Lothar H�belt: Nostalgic Agnostics: Austrian Aristocrats and Politics, 1918-1938
11: Ign�c Romsics: The Hungarian Aristocracy and its Political Attitudes in the Interwar Years
12: Constantin Iordachi: Aristocracy, Fascism, and the Social Origins of Mass Politics in Interwar Romania