SEHI7002 Fascism and Authoritarianism in Eastern Europe, 1918-1945

PLEASE NOTE: This module will not be available in 2018-19

Summative Assessment

2 x 2,500-word essays (100%)

Formative Assessment

Oral presentations in class with feedback

Module Outline

This course will introduce students to the ideologies and histories of the fascist movements of the region between 1918 and 1945. It will also cover the authoritarian regimes which frequently appropriated the symbols and rhetoric of fascism while remaining essentially conservative (e.g. King Carol II’s dictatorship in Romania). The course will open with an exploration of the origins and ideology of nationalism and fascism and then proceed to look at the fascist ‘debate’ i.e. the various definitions of fascism and causal theories regarding the rise of fascism which have been put forward by historians and political scientists over the decades since the Second World War. The course will then proceed with a country-by-country study of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. During the course, students will consider the extent to which fascist and authoritarian movements in Eastern Europe were influenced by the Italian Fascism and German National Socialism or whether they were home-grown and ‘native’.

Indicative Texts

• Noel O’Sulliivan, Fascism, 1983
• Antony Polonsky, The Little Dictators: The History of Eastern Europe since 1918, 1975
• Rebecca Haynes and Martyn Rady (eds), In the Shadow of Hitler: Personalities of the Right in Central and Eastern Europe, 2011/2014

Please note: This outline is accurate at the time of publication. Minor amendments may be made prior to the start of the academic year.