War Veterans and Fascism in Interwar Europe Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare Series

This book explores, from a transnational viewpoint, the historical relationship between war veterans and fascism in interwar Europe. Until now, historians have been roughly divided between those who assume that 'brutalization' (George L. Mosse) led veterans to join fascist movements and those who stress that most ex-soldiers of the Great War became committed pacifists and internationalists. Transcending the debates of the brutalization thesis and drawing upon a wide range of archival and published sources, this work focuses on the interrelated processes of transnationalization and the fascist permeation of veterans' politics in interwar Europe to offer a wider perspective on the history of both fascism and veterans' movements. A combination of mythical constructs, transfers, political communication, encounters and networks within a transnational space explain the relationship between veterans and fascism. Thus, this book offers new insights into the essential ties between fascism and war, and contributes to the theorization of transnational fascism.

Introduction; Part I. Fascism and Veterans after the Great War: 1. The Great War veterans and the origins of fascism, 1914–1919; 2. War veterans and the rise of Italian Fascism, 1920–2; Part II. Fascism and Veterans during the 1920s: 3. Veterans under fascist rule, 1923–5; 4. Veterans and fascism: consolidation and European expansion, 1925–9; Part III. Fascism and Veterans during the 1930s: 5. Transnational fascism and veterans, 1929–35; 6. Veterans between fascism and anti-fascism, war and peace, 1936–40; Conclusion.

Ángel Alcalde is currently a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen. He earned his Ph.D. in history and civilization from the European University Institute, Florence. He is a specialist on the social and cultural history of war, transnational history and the history of fascism. He has published numerous works on the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, including two books, Los excombatientes franquistas (2014) and Lazos de Sangre (2010).