In the Shadow of Hitler

Reviews / Votes

'This book offers characterizations of sixteen 'personalities of the Right' from eight nations in Central and Eastern Europe, operating mainly between the wars. It provides an abundance of information, together with interpretive comments which are frequently illuminating. The large number and variety of case studies, including analyses of little known but intriguing figures like the Ustasha death squad leader Jure Francetic and the Hungarian exponent of anti-feministfeminism, Cecile Tormay, allow general themes to develop. One is the autonomy and particularity of right-wing movements in the region which were not calques of the more famous fascist movements elsewhere in Europe, though these helped shape a climate receptive to anti-democratic ideas. Another concerns gradations on the Right between fascists, conservative authoritarians and those who subsequently expressed elements of repentance, a pattern not unfamiliar in the literature but where the careful mapping of psychology, ideology and conjuncture here supplied offers fresh perspectives. Two further themes are the sheer level of violence in the lives of several of the book's subjects, and the way in which traditional religion could provide organizational support for the Right and lend often pious radicals models for nationalist manifestations, martyrology and death cults. While the personalities in this book did feel their societies to be under threat, they were not modernist intellectuals. The challenges to which they reacted aggressively came from the massive disruption and violence of two world wars and from geopolitical upheavals posing specific problems, and provoking nationalism as a response. This is a well-conceived volume full of interesting material.' - Robin Okey, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Warwick