From Liberalism to Fascism: The Right in a French Province, 1928–1939
Cambridge University Press, 6/26/1997
EAN 9780521580182, ISBN10: 0521580188
Hardcover, 352 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
Language: English
The Croix de Feu and its successor the Parti Social Français stood at the centre of political conflict in the turbulent final years of the French Third Republic. Membership peaked at 750,000 in 1937, and at the time the movement was widely regarded as the counterpart of fascism in Germany and Italy. However, only recently has the view that fascism also has roots in France become a serious topic for debate. From Liberalism to Fascism is based largely on archival research, and shows that contemporary perceptions of the Croix de Feu and the PSF as fascist were in fact correct. Dr Passmore places French fascism in the wider context of the history of French conservatism through a micro-study of a crisis of the liberal-conservative tradition in Lyon. This 1997 book was the first to place the emergence of French fascism in the wider political and social context. In the process, received views of the nature of French society and politics are contested.
Preface
List of abbreviations
List of maps, charts and figures
1. Introduction
2. From France to the Rhone
3. Urban society in the Rhone
4. Rural society in the Rhone
5. The crisis of the right I, 1928–31
6. The impact of the economic crisis
7. The crisis of the right II
8. The Croix de Feu
9. The right and the Popular Front
10. Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.
‘Leaving behind the vacuous rhetoric of fascist intellectuals and Parisian elites, Passmore provides us with what we most need: a study of the provincial dynamics of the right … the real strength of this important book is that Passmore enables us to confront the French provincial right of the inter-war years in all of its messy diversity.’ History