KHID 2515 - Antifascism, Resistance and Liberation in Western Europe : a Transnational History

This course is designed to cast light on a crucial historical period in the twentieth century, which Europeans experienced above all as a decade of crisis and turmoil. The rise of fascism, first in Italy and then in Germany, gave birth to powerful counter-mobilizations of the gradually emerging antifascist community. The Spanish Civil War and World War II intensified this stand-off, giving rise to important armed and unarmed resistance movements. The course ends with a detailed study of the moment of liberation (1943-1948) as a moment of opportunity providing space for a variety of postwar options for the development of European society and politics. Political, social and cultural history will be covered in this course, which will aim at providing maximum opportunity for in-class discussion, rather than top-down lectures. It is thus indispensable that students will have read the materials indicated for each week by the time the class will meet. Please bring the texts along to class for easy reference to select passages. A consistently transnational approach will be employed throughout the twelve weeks of this course.

Gerd-Rainer HORN

Séminaire

English

Week 01: The Rise of Italian Fascism (1919-1922) Readings: Angelo Tasca, The Rise of Italian Fascism, 1918-1922 (London: Methuen, 1938), pp. 194-232 Week 02: Antifascism Prior to the Victory of Mussolini Readings: Tom Behan, The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini (London: Bookmarks, 2003), pp. 53-90 Week 03: Antifascism in Germany Prior to the Victory of Hitler Readings: Serge Chakotin, The Rape of the Masses. The Psychology of Totalitarian Political Propaganda (London: Labour Book Service 1940), pp. 190-234 Week 04: Antifascist Art Readings: The Autobiography of George Grosz (London: Allison&Busby, 1982), pp. 79-102 + 115-123; “Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art” in: André Breton, What is Surrealism? (London: Pluto Press, 1978), pp. 183-187; John Heartfield, Photomontages of the Nazi Period (New York: Universe Books, 1977), pp. 7-21 Week 05: The Era of United Fronts Readings: Gerd-Rainer Horn, European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 53-73 Week 06: The Era of Popular Fronts Readings: Gerd-Rainer Horn, European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 96-116 Week 07: The Spanish Civil War Readings: Adolf Sturmthal, The Tragedy of European Labour (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), pp. 274-296 Week 08: Resistance in France Readings: H.R. Kedward, In Search of the Maquis. Rural Resistance in Southern France (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), pp. 233-279 + 290-295 Week 09: Resistance in Italy Readings: Tom Behan, The Italian Resistance. Fascists, Guerrillas and the Allies (London: Pluto, 2009), pp. 40-85 Week 10: The Gender of Resistance Readings: Janet Hart, New Voices in the Nation. Women and the Greek Resistance, 1941-1964 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), pp. 162-180; Eleni Fourtouni, Greek Women in Resistance (New Haven: Thelphini Press, 1986), pp. 28-36 Week 11: The Moment of Liberation Readings: Tom Behan, The Italian Resistance. Fascists, Guerrillas and the Allies (London: Pluto, 2009), pp. 23-39 + 85-106 Week 12: The Challenge of Liberation Committees Readings: Gerd-Rainer Horn, The Moment of Liberation in Western Europe, 1943-1948 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2020), pp. 7-13 + 18-33 + 42-51

Spring 2024-2025

- one 10-15 minute verbal introduction to the reading materials: 25% - one 2.500 words Research Paper: 75% (Research Paper in paper format to be handed in at class session on 17 April) Please note that the Research Paper deadline is firm. For every day of delay in delivery of your paper, I will have to subtract one point of the notation scale of 0-20.