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List of contents
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Sweden and the Netherlands during the Interwar Period
2. Making the Party: Apparatus and Organisation
3. Making the Leader: Charismatic Leaders and Myth-Making Practices
4. Making the Fascist: Uniforms and the Rank-and-File
5. Making Fascism: Spectacles and the Party Conventions
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Nathaniël D. B. Kunkeler is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo, Norway.
Summary
There was no representative fascist movement during interwar Europe and there is much to be learned from where fascism ‘failed’, relatively speaking. So Nathaniël D. B. Kunkeler skilfully argues in Making Fascism in Sweden and the Netherlands, the first in-depth analysis of Swedish and Dutch fascism in the English language.
Focusing on two peripheral – and therefore often overlooked – fascist movements (the Swedish National Socialist Workers’ Party and the Dutch National Socialist Movement), this sophisticated study de-centres contemporary fascism studies by showing how smaller movements gained political foothold in liberal, democratic regimes. From charismatic leaders and the rallies they held to propaganda apparatus and mythopoeic props seized by ordinary people, Making Fascism in Sweden and the Netherlands analyses the constructs and perceptions of fascism to highlight the variegated nature of the movement in Europe and shine a spotlight on its performative process.
Drawing on a wealth of archival material and using a highly innovative methodology, Kunkeler provides a nuanced analysis of European fascism which allows readers to rediscover the experimental character of far-right politics in interwar Europe.
Additional text
This book breaks new analytical ground in so many different ways. It provides a fascinating and convincing counterbalance to conventional geographies of interwar fascism. By redirecting attention to the supposed ‘peripheries’ of the fascist universe, it puts Swedish and Dutch fascism firmly on the transnational map of fascist ideological mobilities. It also modulates conventional assumptions about the supposed ‘failure’ of fascism in northern liberal democracies. Combining productively comparative and transnational perspectives, but also enriching them through a fascinating engagement with myth and performance, Making Fascism in Sweden and The Netherlands draws much-needed attention to how ‘fascism’ was owned by a much wider range of radical ultranationalist actors in the interwar years and how it was effectively co-produced by them.
