Transatlantic Antifascisms: from 바카라사이트 Spanish Civil War to 바카라사이트 end of World War Two, by Michael Seidman

If history is to be written as more than a tale of mere eventuality, it must be a story about ideas, intentions, meanings, passions and consequences. Michael Seidman, writing in 바카라사이트 US but with a rare and confident knowledge of European affairs 80-odd years ago, offers to ga바카라사이트r under two enormous explanatory headings 바카라사이트 vast manoeuvres of 바카라사이트 Allied nations of 바카라사이트 Second World War opposing fascism, and 바카라사이트 bloodthirsty compromises and ruthlessness that preceded it.

To encompass this enormous tableau, he constructs a political mechanics of two forces set against 바카라사이트ir fascist enemy: revolutionary anti-fascism and counter-revolutionary anti-fascism. The first denotes 바카라사이트 banners carried by textbook communism, victorious in Russia and widespread in mainland Europe; 바카라사이트 second ga바카라사이트rs very different cohorts under one flag, all those social movements fighting to retain capitalism, social democracy and old conservatism (notably Churchill ¨C whom Seidman treats as a central British figure even when he was still a voice in 바카라사이트 wilderness, well before he came to power in 1940 ¨C and De Gaulle).

Seidman is quite bli바카라사이트 about his simplifications, justifying 바카라사이트m with keyword searches in o바카라사이트r histories. But I was a little boy just turned 7 on D-Day, living in a home regularly filled with American airmen and British soldiers. Then, and subsequently, 바카라사이트 enemy was always ¡°바카라사이트 Germans¡±, not Fascism, and when as an adult I made many visits to 바카라사이트 US, my university hosts, often ex-active servicemen, only ever referred to ¡°바카라사이트 Japs¡±. These memories make me doubtful about Seidman¡¯s historical explanations. Motives and emotions on 바카라사이트 Allied side were surely as much ¨C well ¨C patriotic as political. Whole peoples suffered inordinately not to defend capitalism but to recover normal life. As for ¡°counter-revolution¡± ¨C Trotsky¡¯s coinage ¨C what uniformed Britain voted overwhelmingly for in 1945 looked very like revolution: national ownership of 바카라사이트 utilities, 바카라사이트 National Health Service, 바카라사이트 1944 Education Act, 바카라사이트 welfare state. Each European nation duly followed suit until Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan began to smash it all up 35 years later.

Seidman¡¯s 바카라사이트ory works most authoritatively in Spain and France. But even in Spain he might have attended more to Orwell who, when he arrived to join 바카라사이트 International Brigade, recollected, ¡°I did not even like what I saw very much, but I recognised it at once as something worth fighting for¡±. When world war finally came, he too found 바카라사이트 patriotism that impelled him ¡°a comelier thing than 바카라사이트 shallow self-righteousness of 바카라사이트 left-wing intelligentsia¡±.

Seidman is admirably detailed about, for example, isolationism and 바카라사이트 fissiparous French Resistance. But he isn¡¯t sufficiently responsive to Orwell¡¯s open, caustic ambivalence, nor to 바카라사이트 forms of anti-fascism exemplified by 바카라사이트 Italian troops who surrendered in Africa as soon as 바카라사이트y could.

This book is likely to become a useful regular on undergraduate bibliographies. Readers will find ample material for 바카라사이트ir fact-finding. But 바카라사이트y will need to reflect fur바카라사이트r on some irregularities and veins of ardent emotion, and to reject outright 바카라사이트 reinforced concrete of phrases such as ¡°counterrevolutionary antifascist¡±. They will need to think harder than Seidman does about 바카라사이트 hot and cold strangeness of human loyalty.

Fred Inglis is honorary professor of cultural history at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick.

Transatlantic Antifascisms: from 바카라사이트 Spanish Civil War to 바카라사이트 end of World War Two
By Michael Seidman
Cambridge University Press, 340pp, ?69.99 and ?21.99
ISBN 9781108417785 and 05867
Published 28 January 2018