Lecture Rehearsals: 3.3. Fascism & Naziism

For 2021-10-07

3.3. Fascism & Naziism

(64:23)

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3.3.1. Lecture—Fascism

When nationalism proved more powerful than class solidarity at the start of WWI, young Italian socialist switched to put himself at the head of the larger parade. He then felt his way forward into the half-serious half-confidence game doctrines of fascism (17:36):

Slides: <https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-3.3.1-fascism.pptx>

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3.3.2. Lecture—Naziism
Adolf Hitler was a fascist. Also a genocidal racist-nationalist. He also found himself at the head of a nation with an army trained to attack in brutal and surprising ways that had proved dangerously effective since the late 1600s (25:32):

Slides: <https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-3.3.2-naziism.pptx>

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3.3.3. Lecture—How Many Totalitarian Movements?
How many totalizing antimarket anti-representative government movements were there in the world in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s? Were there one two or three? Or was really existing Socialism different enough from fascism and Naziism to be a separate species on its own? And was Naziiism a form of fascism, or a genocidal corruption of a doctrine that hoped for solidarity in a way that semi-classical semi-liberalism had never provided? I will not say that I have answers. I will say that I have views, largely springing from my readings of Hobsbawm and Keynes (21:15):

Slides: <https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-3.3.3-totalitarian.pptx>

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Readings:

• DeLong, Slouching Towards Utopia ch 9 <https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/readings/2021-07-31-slouching-%23tocopyedit.pdf>

• Eichengreen: The Populist Temptation, selections 2 <https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/readings/book-eichengreen-populist-selections-2.pdf (Links to an external site.)>

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