British Fascism Research Articles

Ideology of Obsession: A. K. Chesterton and British Fascism

Ideology of Obsession: A. K. Chesterton and British Fascism

Late Modern

The Oxford Companion to British History. Edited by John Cannon Charity, Self‐interest and Welfare in the English Past. Edited by Martin Daunton Land and Society in Britain, 1700–1914: Essays in Honour of F. M. L. Thompson. Edited by Negley Harte and Roland Quinault The Making of Modern Irish History: Revisionism and the Revisionist Controversy. Edited by D. George Boyce and Alan O'Day John Wilkes: A Friend to Liberty. By Peter D. G. Thomas Modern Europe, 1789–1989. By Asa Briggs and Patricia Clavin Microhistories: Demography, Society and Culture in Rural England, 1800–1930. By Barry Reay Europe after Napoleon: Revolution, Reaction and Romanticism, 1814–1848. By Michael Broers Escape from the Market: Negotiating Work in Lancashire. By Michael Huberman Powers of the Press: Newspapers, Power and the Public in Nineteenth‐Century England. By Aled Jones Before the Famine Struck: Life in West Clare, 1843–1845. By Ignatius Murphy A Starving People: Life and Death in West Clare, 1845–1851. By Ignatius Murphy The Essential Mayhew: Representing and Communicating the Poor. Edited by Bertrand Taithe Medical Services and the Hospitals in Britain, 1860–1939. By Steven Cherry The Austro‐Prussian War: Austria's War with Prussia and Italy in 1866. By Geoffrey Wawro Disraeli: A Brief Life. By Paul Smith Masters of Bedlam: The Transformation of the Mad‐Doctoring Trade. By Andrew Scull, Charlotte MacKenzie and Nicholas Hervey A New History of Ireland, Volume VI: Ireland Under the Union, II: 1870–1921. Edited by W. E. Vaughan The Crisis of Conservatism: The Politics, Economics and Ideology of the British Conservative Party, 1880–1914. By E. H. H. Green Britannia's Children: Reading Colonialism through Children's Books and Magazines. By Kathryn Castle Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women's Suffrage Movement. By Sandra Stanley Holton The Politics of Pessimism: Albert de Broglie and Conservative Politics in the Early Third Republic. By Alan Grubb French Revolutionary Syndicalism and the Public Sphere. By Kenneth H. Tucker The Agony of the Russian Idea. By Tim McDaniel Poverty is not a Vice: Charity, Society and the State in Imperial Russia. By Adele Lindenmeyr Histoire du Royaume‐Uni au XXe siècle. By Fran¸ois‐Charles Mougel A History of Conservative Politics, 1900–1996. By John Charmley France and Britain, 1900–1940: Entente and Estrangement. By P. M. H. Bell Wilhelm II. Volume 2: Emperor and Exile, 1900–1941. By Lamar Cecil The Health of the Schoolchild: A History of the School Medical Service in England and Wales. By Bernard Harris Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual Politics and Political Activism. By Barbara Winslow Grandeur and Misery: France's Bid for Power in Europe 1914–1940. By Anthony Adamthwaite Aspects of British Political History 1914–1995. By Stephen J. Lee Blighty: British Society in the Era of the Great War. By Gerard J. De Groot Tickled to Death to Go: Memoirs of a Cavalryman in the First World War. Edited by Richard van Emden Republican and Fascist Germany: Themes and Variations in the History of Weimar and the Third Reich 1918–1945. By John Hiden Feminism and the Third Republic: Women's Political and Civil Rights in France, 1918–1945. By Paul Smith The Failure of British Fascism: The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition. Edited by Mike Cronin Personalities and Power: Stanley Baldwin and the Search for Consensus. By Duncan Watts Red Tempest: The Life of a Surgeon in the Gulag. By Isaac J. Vogelfanger Anthony Eden: A Life and Reputation. By David Dutton Britain in the Second World War: A Social History. By Harold L. Smith Voices of D‐Day: The Story of the Allied Invasion, Told by Those Who Were There. Edited by Ronald J. Drez The War for the German Mind: Re‐educating Hitler's Soldiers. By Arthur L. Smith The World Reacts to the Holocaust. Edited by David S. Wyman Britain and European Integration since the Second World War. Edited by Sean Greenwood The Great Alliance: Economic Recovery and the Problems of Power 1945–1951. By Jim Phillips The Conservative Governments 1951–1964. By Andrew Boxer Winston Churchill's Last Campaign: Britain and the Cold War 1951–1955. By John Young Spain: Democracy Regained. Second Edition. By E. Ramón Arango Britain in the 1970s; The Troubled Economy. Edited by Richard Coopey and Nicholas Woodward

The Guardian of the 'Sacred Flame': The Failed Political Resurrection of Sir Oswald Mosley after 1945

The message of encouragement, in difficult times, with which Mosley raised the morale of embattled members of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1938, is still remembered as a clarion call by the 'Friends of OM', the last flickering ember of the sacred flame. At no time was it more needed by the faithful than in 1945, but the full story behind Mosley's return to politics, and the extent to which he remained within a fascist perspective, has still to be written. The release of Home Office files on Mosley's political activities between 1945 and 1948, and the papers of Robert Saunders at the University of Sheffield, however, have provided much interesting new material to assess Mosley's attempted political resurrection after the second world war.1 John Hope has argued that the Union Movement acted as a transmission belt between preand postwar British fascism. He points to the significance of the internment camps in the second world war, from which new leaders emerged, who were to play an important role in the revival of neo-fascism in Britain after 1945.2 This is an interesting argument, but fascism was an interwar phenomenon and many were devastated by internment. Only the most committed wished to revive the tradition in a new form of nostalgic, mimetic or neo-fascism after the war.3 Why Mosley tried to adapt his fascism to the new realities, in a political climate well symbolized by the deep freeze of the winter of 1947, is the main focus of this article. The key to Mosley's return to politics, despite his realization that he would be regarded as a political flat-earther, was provided in an interview he gave to

The Failure of British Fascism: The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition

(1997). The Failure of British Fascism: The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 156-157.

The Swastika and the Shamrock: British Fascism and the Irish Question, 1918–1940

The last fifteen years have seen an efflorescence of scholarly studies of British fascism between the wars. Once identified exclusively with the figure of Sir Oswald Mosley and dismissed as a wholly derivative imitation of its Italian and German counterparts, fascism in Britain is now understood as a complex and variegated phenomenon whose roots run no less extensively in British political culture than in external influences. As historians have probed more deeply into the ideological underpinnings of the British ultra-right, they have made increasingly apparent the numerous connections between this new form of political mobilization and long-standing tensions within British politics and society. While scholars continue to acknowledge the many important ways in which British fascism was indebted to its Continental equivalents, they can no longer maintain—as did Robert Benewick in 1969 in his groundbreaking survey of the radical right—that fascist policy was developed “with a callous disregard for principles” or that the distinctively fascist elements of British ultra-right ideology were imported en bloc from overseas.It is all the more surprising that existing histories should have overlooked so completely one of the most important “indigenous” components of British fascist ideology - its preoccupation with the Irish question. In the 1920s and 1930s, anti-Irish sentiment became a principal theme of several leading fascist groups, exceeded in prominence only by anti-Semitism and anti-Bolshevism, to which it was often explicitly linked. For these small, politically marginal societies, the formulation and dissemination of hibernophobic ideas held obvious attractions.

Ideology of obsession: A.K. Chesterton and British fascism

I belong to Africa almost the freeman of two worlds many illusions adventures in dramatic appreciation G. Wilson Knight and Chesterton fascism an apotheosis of anti-Semitism? creed of a fascist revolutionary disillusion with fascism aftermath.

Northern Ireland and British fascism in the inter-war years

During the civil rights campaign of the late 1960s the perception of the Stormont government as fascist was widespread among nationalists—a perception expressed in Nazi salutes and the chant ‘S.S.—R.U.C.’ when confronting the police. The historical reference this perception embodied, however, was less than comprehensive. In particular, it obscured the attraction that fascism and movements inspired by fascism had for many people in Britain and Ireland in the inter-war years; and while fascism did not give rise to a movement of major importance in Northern Ireland, it nevertheless had a more significant presence there than has sometimes been thought. For instance, Robert Fisk's view that the only fascists in the north were Italian émigrés, grouped in Belfast and Derry, is inaccurate. In fact at various times in this period there existed branches of the British Fascists (B.F.), representatives of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (B.U.F.), together with a brief but significant initiative on Northern Ireland by the leader of the Blueshirt movement in the Irish Free State, General Eoin O'Duffy. Unlike the local representatives of Italian fascism, who confined their activities chiefly to greeting visiting Italian dignitaries and maintaining links with the homeland, these groups were very much concerned with domestic politics. Fascism in Northern Ireland, however, has other claims to attention than those occasioned by their activities alone, for it also serves to illuminate the neglected area of B.U.F. attitudes to Ireland in general.

Late Modern

The Industrial Revolution. By Pat HudsonLondon in the Age of Industrialisation: Entrepreneurs, Labour Force and Living Conditions, 1700–1850. By L. D. SchwarzCollision of Empires: Britain in Three World Wars, 1793–1945. By A. D. HarveyPaul I of Russia, 1754–1801. By Roderick E. McGrewNapoleon on Napoleon: An Autobiography of the Emperor. Edited by Somerset de ChairThe Politics of Technological Change in Prussia: Out of the Shadow of Antiquity, 1809–1848. By Eric Dorn BroseCharles, Earl Grey: Aristocratic Reformer. By John W. DerryThe Victorians and Renaissance Italy. By Hilary FraserVictorian Values. Edited by T. C. SmoutMid‐Victorian Wales: The Observers and the Observed. By Ieuan Gwynedd JonesRural Life in Victorian Aberdeenshire. By William AlexanderBritish Political History 1867–1990: Democracy and Decline. By Malcolm Pearce and Geoffrey StewartMyths of the English. Edited by Roy PorterOutsiders and Outcasts. Essays in Honour of William J. Fishman. Edited by Geoffrey Alderman and Colin HolmesRacial Violence in Britain, 1840–1950. Edited by Panikos PanayiA Confusion of Prophets: Victorian and Edwardian Astrology. By Patrick CurryPrivate Lives, Public Spirit: A Social History of Britain 1870–1914. By José HarrisThe Myth of the Empty Church. By Robin GillReligion and Urban Change: Croydon, 1840–1914. By J. N. MorrisWhite Collar Crime in Modern England: Financial Fraud and Business Morality 1845–1929. By George RobbPredicaments of Love. By J. Miriam BennPoor and Pregnant in Paris: Strategies for Survival in the Nineteenth Century. By Rachel G. FuchsThe French State in Question: Public Law and Political Argument in the Third Republic. By H. S. JonesPower and Pleasure: Louis Barthou and the Third French Republic. By Robert J. YoungI Remain, Your Son Jack: Letters from The First World War. By J. C. MortenBritish Propaganda and the State in the First World War. By Gary S. MessingerIn the Wake of War: ‘Les Anciens Combattants’ and French Society. By Antoine ProstMen at War 1914–1918: National Sentiment and Trench Journalism in France during the First World War. By Stephane Audoin‐RouzeauMyopic Grandeur: The Ambivalence of French Foreign Policy towards the Far East, 1919–1945. By John E. DreifortManaging the Franc Poincaré: Economic Understanding and Political Constraint in French Monetary Policy, 1928–1936. By Kenneth MouréThe Eclipse of Parliament: Appearance and Reality in British Politics since 1914. By Bruce LenmanBritain in the 1930s. By Andrew ThorpeIntellectuals and British Fascism: A Study of Henry Williamson. By Melvyn David HigginbottomGenuinely Seeking Work: Mass Unemployment on Merseyside in the 1930s. By Sam Davies, Pete Gill, Linda Grant, Martyn Nightingale, Ron Noon and Andy ShalliceWilliam Temple: Church, State and Society in Britain, 1880–1950. By John KentErnest Bevin. By Peter WeilerOliver Franks: Founding Father. By Alex DanchevEconomic Planning 1943–1951: A Guide to Documents in the Public Record Office. Edited by B. W. E. Alford, Rodney Lowe and Neil RollingsAnarchosyndicalism, Libertarian Communism and the State: The CNT in Zaragoza and Aragón, 1930–1937. By Graham KelseyThe Spanish Economy from the Civil War to the European Community. By Joseph HarrisonLernen aus dem Krieg? Deutsche Nachkriegszeiten 1918 und 1945. Edited by Gottfried Niedhart and Dieter RiesenbergerDeutschland 1933–1945: Neue Studien zur nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft. Edited by Karl‐Dietrich Bracher, Manfred Funke and Hans‐Adolf JacobsenGerman Resistance against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad, 1938–1945. By Klemens von KlempererFor the Soul of the People: Protestant Protest against Hitler. By Victoria BarnettBritische Besatzung in Deutschland. Aktenerschlieβung und ForschungsfelderThe Battle for Coal: Miners and the Politics of Nationalization in France, 1940–1950. By Darryl HolterStalinism: Its Nature and Aftermath. Essays in Honour of Moshe Lewin. Edited by Nick Lampert and Gábor RitterspornReligious Policy in the Soviet Union. Edited by Sabrina Petra Ramet

Gender and the British Union of Fascists

Whereas fascist movements on the continent achieved power in Germany and Italy and were a significant force in several other countries, British fascism never reached any such position. Proscribed shortly after the outbreak of the second world war, its leading activists interned, the most important organization, Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union, had only been a few thousand strong for much of the 1930s. Even at its highest point, in 1934, the British Union of Fascists (BUF), as it was originally called, numbered only some 40,000 and received little electoral support, gaining at best approximately a fifth of the poll in local elections in 1937 in its East London heartland. Nevertheless, as the main British representative of a major political tendency, the BUF has been the subject of extensive study. There has been much discussion of the role of anti-semitism in the movement, and other areas, ranging from its attitude towards nazi Germany to its economic policies, have also been examined.' Amid all this interest, however, existing accounts have paid almost no attention to British fascism and gender. Little consideration has been given to the role of women in the BUF. Nor, despite the movement's decision to adopt the term 'National Socialism' in 1936 and the infamous importance of 'the woman question' for its German cothinkers, has much attention been paid to British fascism's policy towards women. A comprehensive exploration of these areas would not be possible within the confines of a single article, and I have discussed elsewhere the activities of women BUF members.2 This essay will focus, first on how the movement envisaged the role of women in a future British fascism and, second, on how BUF propagandists, both men and women, treated issues of gender. The neglect of gender in discussions of the BUF especially needs correction, considering the circumstances in which the movement rose and fell. The election that brought Labour its ill-fated victory in

Anglo.Jewish Responses to Nazi Germany 1933—39: The Anti-nazi Boycott and the Board of Deputies of British Jews

While various studies have been carried out on the responses of the British government and the British press to nazi Germany,1 specifically Jewish attitudes have been neglected. Where the Jewish community of the 1930s in Britain has been the object of scholarly attention, the focal point has been the fight against domestic fascism and not the response to nazi Germany.2 Certainly the victory over British fascism at Cable Street and the events leading up to it provide an attractive subject of investigation for the historian. There is no comparable success which can be said to have been the culmination of Jewish responses to nazi Germany. Neither the boycott of German goods and services undertaken by the majority of British Jews nor the cautious diplomatic approach pursued by the official communal leadership, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), had the slightest effect in ameliorating the conditions of Jews in Germany. It is perhaps for this reason that the history of the anti-nazi boycott movement of the 1930s and the numerous protest marches and meetings which formed part of it remains virtually unexplored. But the ultimate failure of a movement does not mean that it should be consigned to oblivion, especially a movement of such large dimensions as the anti-nazi boycott drive of the 1930s. Researchers into the subject will benefit from Bernard Krikler's unpublished paper in the possession of the Wiener Library.3 Krikler provides a useful overview of some of the most prominent attitudes present in the community. His chief source of evidence was the Jewish Chronicle (JC), whose coverage of events in nazi Germany and the conflicts they provoked in the Jewish community is extensive and often quite perceptive. But an exploration of a large body of the BoD's correspondence for the period enables one to probe deeper than the level of contemporary public discourse. The JC presents the arguments, accusations and counter-accusations levelled by the

British fascism and state Surveillance, 1934–45

(1988). British fascism and state Surveillance, 1934–45. Intelligence and National Security: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 77-99.

The ‘Jew wise’: Dimensions of British political anti‐Semitism, 1918–39

‘The Jew Wise’ is an edited version of Chapter 4 of the author's forthcoming Fascism in Britain: A History 1918–85 to be published by Basil Blackwell in January 1987. It examines the extremist racial nationalist tradition in the inter‐war period and, through using reliable declassified intelligence material from MIS, Special Branch and the Board of Deputies of British Jews archive, shows its impact on the authorities and the development of British Fascism. The article presents new evidence on the Britons and the Imperial Fascist League and examines the available material on the activities of Britain's most notorious anti‐Semite, Archibald H. Maule Ramsay, MP.

The Development of the Ideas and Policy of the British Union of Fascists, 1932-40

Until the appearance of Neill Nugent's article on the ideas of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1977,' this aspect of British fascism had been largely ignored. Previous work on the BUF concentrated mainly upon questions related to the character of Sir Oswald Mosley, the movement's leader and prime mover, and the novel features of the BUF's organization and campaigns, together with such aspects as anti-semitism and violence. Indeed, recent work on the topic has returned to questions of organization and historical narrative; for example, Gerry Webber's interesting contribution to the question of BUF membership,2 and J.D. Brewer's study of the BUF in the West Midlands.3 However, to date, Nugent's article remains the main commentary on the ideological orientation of Britain's primary fascist movement. Nugent's article was the first attempt to provide a clearer explanation of the BUF's ideas than that contained in the standard works on the movement.4 In addition, he provided a useful framework within which to analyze the differing elements in the hierarchy of BUF ideas and policy. Nugent divided the various elements of BUF thought into five sections, namely: the speeches and writings of Mosley, the contributions of the 'inner core' of the BUF's hierarchy, the periodic publications of the movement, the speeches and writings of the lesser leaders of the movement, and, finally, all other pronouncements. It is the first two 'authoritative' categories that Nugent concentrated on in his article. It seems that this five-part categorization of BUF ideas is essentially a correct interpretation of the importance of the various elements of thought within the BUF, bearing in mind that it was a strictly hierarchical movement, based upon the principles of leadership, and led by the charismatic figure of Mosley. However, the further content of the article merely provides a stepping-off point for further discussion.

Review article: Migrants, minorities, and Mosleyites

Kenneth Lunn (ed.), Hosts, Immigrants, and Minorities: Historical Responses to Newcomers in British Society, 1870–1914; Folkestone: Dawson, 1980, 377 pp., £15.00. Colin Holmes, Antisemitism in British Society, 1876–1939; London: Arnold, 1979, 328 pp., £13.50. Gisela C. Lebzelter, Political Antisemitism in England, 1918–39; London: Macmillan, in association with St Antony's College, Oxford, 1978, 222 pp., £10.00. Kenneth Lunn & Richard C. Thurlow (eds), British Fascism: Essays on the Radical Right in Inter‐War Britain; London: Croom Helm, 1980, 234 pp., £12.95.

Books

New views on inter‐war Fascism, K. Lunn and R. C. Thurlow (eds.), British Fascism, Croom Helm, 1980. The Jewish community — past and present, Gerald Cromer, England: the History of the Anglo‐Jewish Community, Keter Books, distributed by Jewish Chronicle Publications, 1978, £2.75. Yehuda Bauer, The Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness, Macmillan, 1980, £12. Jane Moonman, Anglo‐Jewry — an analysis, commissioned by the Institute of Jewish Affairs, published by the Joint Israel Appeal, 1980, £2. A black musician in white society, Avril Coleridge‐Taylor, The Heritage of Samuel Coleridge‐Taylor, Dobson, 1980, £7.50. Do‐it‐yourself litigation, Michael Malone, A Practical Guide to Discrimination, Grant McIntyre, 1979. Minority children in Canadian history, Mary Ashworth, The Forces Which Shaped Them, New Star Books, Vancouver, 1979. Health care for Asians, Aux Henley, Asian Patients in Hospital and at Home, King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, 1979, 188 pages. Rastafarianism in Britain, Len Garrison, Black Youth, Rastafarianism, and the Identity Crisis in Britain, ACER Project, London, 1979, (54 pp.). Causes and consequences of inner city problems, Alan Evans and David Eversley (Eds.), The Inner City: Employment and Housing, Heinemann, 1980, 503 pp., £25. Fifteen years of failure in Watts, Douglas G. Glasgow, The Black Underclass: Poverty, Unemployment, and Entrapment of Ghetto Youth, Jossey‐Bass, 1980, pp. 205, £11.20. Labour versus tradition in Chinatown, Peter Kwong, Chinatown, New York, Labour and Politics, 1930–1950, Monthly Review Press, 1980, £7.60. Tories before the 1979 victory, Zig Layton‐Henry (ed.), Conservative Party Politics, Macmillan, 1980, (paperback), £6.95.

Kenneth Lunn and Richard C. Thurlow, editors. British Fascism. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1980. Pp. 234. $25.00.

Kenneth Lunn and Richard C. Thurlow, editors. British Fascism. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1980. Pp. 234. $25.00.

‘Democracy versus Dictatorship: Labour's Role in the Struggle against British Fascism, 1933–1936

‘Democracy versus Dictatorship: Labour's Role in the Struggle against British Fascism, 1933–1936

Interpretations of British Fascism

Interpretations of British Fascism

The Martignoni Affair: How a Swiss politician deceived Mussolini

The material for this article is drawn from eleven documents in the U.S. National Archives 'World War II collection of seized enemy records: Personal papers of Benito Mussolini ...' T586, roll 425. My attention was drawn to them by the work of the French historian Max Gallo on the subsidies paid by Italy to French and British fascists. Angiolo Martignoni was a conservative Councillor of State in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of the Ticino from 1927, when he was 37 years old, to 1947. He died in 1952. Obituary notices, whatever the complexion of the paper, paid tribute to his patriotism and to his work as minister for agriculture. Was he in fact a patriot or a potential Quisling? In April 1930 he was received by Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia. Shortly after, he asked the Duce for 150,000 francs to promote the development of fascism in the Ticino, and by the end of the year he had received subsidies totalling 80,000 francs.

Sir Oswald Leaves the Labour Party, March 1931

Sir Oswald Mosley's political career has recently formed the basis of a full-length study of British Fascism; in addition there are signs that his undoubted abilities, particularly in regard to his activities prior to the formation of the British Union of Fascists in 1932, are being recognised.1 Colin Cross, the author of the study in question, regards the decision to leave the Labour Party as crucial in Mosley's career; thereafter his record has been one of virtually unbroken failure, involving him in, among other things, racist controversy and in detention as a potential traitor in time of war. He is now the leader of a tiny fringe group with no prospects of power, his influence negligible. It has been at once a tragic and a nasty story. Why did Mosley leave the Labour Party and throw away, as Cross persuasively argues, the chances of high, possibly the highest, office within it? Cross puts the decision down to impatience and a sense of destiny, and deals only cursorily with the matter. Fuller study shows the story to be revelatory of features of British political life of the time, notably the fluid state of politics and the widespread contemporary criticism of economic and political orthodoxy. It also shows how, and to an extent why, Mosley changed from a brilliant rebel left-wing economist to a frustrated, semi mystical authoritarian prophet. It is the purpose of this article to throw light on both these aspects, primarily on a decisive phase in Mosley's extraordinary political Odyssey; but also on the issues and concerns of the politics of 1930-31.