To the Threshold of Power, 1922/33
Origins and Dynamics of the Fascist and National Socialist Dictatorships

This work seeks to explain the origins and dynamics of the Fascist and National Socialist dictatorships.

MacGregor Knox (Author)

9780521703291, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 September 2007

464 pages, 10 tables
23.1 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.626 kg

'Whoever looks for a reliable and detailed narrative account of Italy's and Germany's history from the nineteenth century 'to the threshold of power' in 1922 and 1933 is well served by this book.' Journal of Central European History

To the Threshold of Power is the first volume of a two-part work that seeks to explain the origins and dynamics of the Fascist and National Socialist dictatorships. It lays a foundation for understanding the Nazi and Fascist regimes through parallel investigations of Italian and German society, institutions, and national myths; the supreme test of the First World War; and the post-1918 struggles from which the Fascist and National Socialist movements emerged. It emphasizes two principal sources of movement: the nationalist mythology of the intellectuals and the institutional culture and agendas of the two armies, especially the Imperial German Army and its Reichswehr successor. The book's climax is the cataclysm of 1914-18 and the rise and triumph of militarily organized radical nationalist movements - Mussolini's Fasci di combattimento and Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party - dedicated to the perpetuation of the war and the overthrow of the post-1918 world order.

Introduction: dictatorship in the age of mass politics
Part I. The Long Nineteenth Century, 1789–1914: 1. Latecomers
2. Italy and Germany as nation-states, 1871–1914
Part II. From War to Dictatorship, 1914–1933: 3. The synthesis of violence and politics, 1914–1918
4. Kampfzeit: the road to radical nationalist victory, 1919–1933
Conclusion: into the radical national future: inheritances and prospects of the new regimes.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]