Britain is celebrated for having avoided the extremism, political violence & instability that blighted many European countries between the two world wars. But her success was a closer thing than has been realized. Disillusionment with parliamentary democracy, outbreaks of fascist violence & fears of communist subversion in industry & the Empire ran through the entire period.
Fascist organizations may have failed to attract the support they achieved elsewhere but fascist ideas were adopted from top to bottom of society & by men & women in all parts of the country. This book will demonstrate for the first time the true spread & depth of fascist beliefs
- & the extent to which they were distinctly British. Like the Continental movements, fascism in the UK encompassed the corporate state, charismatic leadership & youthful rejection of the decadent rule of the older generation. But was it less anti-Semitic? Was it readier to adopt a feminist agenda? & was the fact that Britain finally repudiated fascism more a matter of timing & chance than of fundamental obstacles in British society & politics?
Hurrah for the Blackshirts!, rich in anecdotes & extraordinary characters, shows us an inter-war Britain on the high-road to fascism but never quite arriving at its destination.