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Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939
Metropolitan Books
August 2006
On Sale: August 1, 2006
Featuring: Winston Churchill; Stalin; Franklin D. Roosevelt
256 pages
ISBN: 080507452X
EAN: 9780805074529
Hardcover
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Historical
From a world-renowned cultural historian, an original
look at the hidden commonalities among Fascism, Nazism, and
the New Deal
Today Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
New Deal is regarded as the democratic ideal, the positive
American response to an economic crisis that propelled
Germany and Italy toward Fascism. Yet in the 1930s, shocking
as it may seem, these regimes were hardly considered
antithetical. Now, Wolfgang Schivelbusch investigates the
shared elements of these three "new deals" to offer a
striking explanation for the popularity of Europe's
totalitarian systems.
Returning to the Depression,
Schivelbusch traces the emergence of a new type of state:
bolstered by mass propaganda, led by a charismatic figure,
and projecting stability and power. He uncovers stunning
similarities among the three regimes: the symbolic
importance of gigantic public works programs like the TVA
dams and the German autobahn, which not only put people back
to work but embodied the state's authority; the seductive
persuasiveness of Roosevelt's fireside chats and Mussolini's
radio talks; the vogue for monumental architecture stamped
on Washington, as on Berlin; and the omnipresent banners
enlisting citizens as loyal followers of the
state.
Far from equating Roosevelt, Hitler, and
Mussolini or minimizing their acute differences,
Schivelbusch proposes that the populist and paternalist
qualities common to their states hold the key to the
puzzling allegiance once granted to Europe's most tyrannical
regimes.
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