Mainstream history these days tends to gloss over the first few years of German history after WW1, skipping ahead to the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. This does everyone a disservice, which is why it's important to understand events like the Bolshevik attempts to seize not just Berlin and Bavaria, but other places in Europe as well.
How and why did interwar right wing dictatorships arise? In large part because of middle class terror of the real threat from communists taking over, and their proven track record of large scale, murderous violence against "class enemies." Lenin unleashed the Red Terror in Russia, and lots of people wanted to do the same in Europe and around the world. Death threats have a way of making people wake up, look for their guns, get organized, and preemptively secure themselves.
I recently read Byline: Ernest Hemingway, a collection of his journalism. A good book. He was in Italy right after World War I. He has one article about that. You can see the hard leftists itching to bring the violence, and the demobilized soldiers and solid citizens who are the targets of the left joining forces and fighting in the streets. Those original disorganized right wing street gangs because Mussolini's boys. Not many people were interested in constitutional democracy. Everyone knew who their enemies were, and wanted to bash their heads in. When it gets to that stage, it is hard to have nice things anymore. The lefties used the tried and true method of starting a fight, then screaming that they are being attacked, to get sympathy in the press, and abroad. Some things never change.
Hey Niccolo, first time long time. Just wanted to pop in and say that if you would like someone to proofread your entries in the future I'd be happy to do so. Really enjoying the content and looking forward to this book club.
If Eisner was a Bolshevik, he was alone among them in being a pacifist. Even his revolution was bloodless, brought on by a strike of munitions factory workers. His pacifism is further attested by his leaking, while in office, of documents implicating Germany in provoking the war. He was hated for this, and indeed it added much to the case for heavy war reparations inflicted on Germany. The revolutionary violence really began after his assassination.
Feb 22, 2023·edited Feb 22, 2023Liked by Niccolo Soldo
Im always fascinated by how IGNORANT historians ( leaning left, always) are about the emergence of fascism.
It has always been clear to me that it was both a REACTION movement against increasingly violent and militant COMMUNISM, and an ALTERNATIVE-DISDAIN for democracy, a political system that at the time was perceived to be super weak to confront the violence from communist movements ( Ebert's reaction towards the 1919 uprisings was the exception) and to be super SLOW and pointless in solving economic issues (well, modern democracy still sucks at this--some things never change :) )
And you're right in point it out that these midwit "historians" (Michael Beschloss stupid face comes to mind) make their surprised pikachu face about the "sudden" emergence of fascism....is it uncomfortable for them to face that THEIR side engaged in all forms of violence (bolshevism, anarchism) from the late 19th century to the interwar period?
The New York Public Library has it, but you can't check it out. I've spent a fair amount of the evening looking for it online and officially give up. But I very much look forward to reading your take!
this sounds quite interesting (paperback on the way). while i am thoroughly enjoying the book clubs, the weekend reading, and the bongland diaries, can we please get some more gay sex?
Post WW1 is well summarized by Churchill "The World Crisis: Aftermath" the last in a series.
He was of course still deeply involved in post war affairs.
He was not at Versailles but well informed.
>Part of the problems that occurred after WW1 was Wilson insisted on a Full Academic Review and completion of the American Survey of the various nations *as they descended into chaos* instead of giving clear simple directions and the vision of the future they could expect.
So Germany, Greece-Turkey and the Balkans, Russia burned while the academics gathered information.
In the end the Big 5* decided the future, in the interim Wilson blew it at home by insulting the entire Republican party including the voters, never mind the elected Senate and the USA withdrew.
In a rare win for "things in the US that still actually work", my copy has arrived via inter-library loan. It has been withdrawn from its university library, hundreds of miles away, a grand total of 13 times since its 1965 arrival, and from the proximity of the dates I'm fairly sure that four of the withdrawals were from the same individual. (What must it be like to devote years of your life to toiling away on obscure political subjects, only for nobody at all to read your output? Couldn't be me!) In any case, for just $3 the book is mine for two weeks.
I thought this might be quite a dry read but, being just one chapters in, I am enjoying not just the historical lesson of an era (19th century Bavaria; we are still scene-setting) of which I'm almost totally ignorant, but Mitchell's economy of language. On Emperor Ludwig, between the descriptions of the genius of his autarkic rule, a moment of measured, faint praise: "He was successful insofar as he may be credited with the fact that Bavaria had scarcely any social element by 1948 which could be described as a proletariat."
Next chapter: the introduction of Eisner into this Bavaria - the post-monarchial, newly-industrial, newly-party political, whose sweeping away of the old world for the new happened in less than a century... looking forward to seeing what happens.
Maybe you've explained this somewhere, but does one have to be a paid subscriber to join the book club? It looks like some good books are sprinkled in here!
Mainstream history these days tends to gloss over the first few years of German history after WW1, skipping ahead to the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. This does everyone a disservice, which is why it's important to understand events like the Bolshevik attempts to seize not just Berlin and Bavaria, but other places in Europe as well.
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How and why did interwar right wing dictatorships arise? In large part because of middle class terror of the real threat from communists taking over, and their proven track record of large scale, murderous violence against "class enemies." Lenin unleashed the Red Terror in Russia, and lots of people wanted to do the same in Europe and around the world. Death threats have a way of making people wake up, look for their guns, get organized, and preemptively secure themselves.
I recently read Byline: Ernest Hemingway, a collection of his journalism. A good book. He was in Italy right after World War I. He has one article about that. You can see the hard leftists itching to bring the violence, and the demobilized soldiers and solid citizens who are the targets of the left joining forces and fighting in the streets. Those original disorganized right wing street gangs because Mussolini's boys. Not many people were interested in constitutional democracy. Everyone knew who their enemies were, and wanted to bash their heads in. When it gets to that stage, it is hard to have nice things anymore. The lefties used the tried and true method of starting a fight, then screaming that they are being attacked, to get sympathy in the press, and abroad. Some things never change.
This looks like a good book. Yeah, pricey.
Hey Niccolo, first time long time. Just wanted to pop in and say that if you would like someone to proofread your entries in the future I'd be happy to do so. Really enjoying the content and looking forward to this book club.
So the Bolsheviks were behind it ! Those damn meddling Russians ! What next, meddling in (democratic) elections ?
It really bothers me when people say that right wingers are more violent than leftists. History has so successfully been re-written.
Everyone likes to sneer at 'reactionaries'. No one likes to follow the thought to the end and question what they were reacting to.
If Eisner was a Bolshevik, he was alone among them in being a pacifist. Even his revolution was bloodless, brought on by a strike of munitions factory workers. His pacifism is further attested by his leaking, while in office, of documents implicating Germany in provoking the war. He was hated for this, and indeed it added much to the case for heavy war reparations inflicted on Germany. The revolutionary violence really began after his assassination.
Im always fascinated by how IGNORANT historians ( leaning left, always) are about the emergence of fascism.
It has always been clear to me that it was both a REACTION movement against increasingly violent and militant COMMUNISM, and an ALTERNATIVE-DISDAIN for democracy, a political system that at the time was perceived to be super weak to confront the violence from communist movements ( Ebert's reaction towards the 1919 uprisings was the exception) and to be super SLOW and pointless in solving economic issues (well, modern democracy still sucks at this--some things never change :) )
And you're right in point it out that these midwit "historians" (Michael Beschloss stupid face comes to mind) make their surprised pikachu face about the "sudden" emergence of fascism....is it uncomfortable for them to face that THEIR side engaged in all forms of violence (bolshevism, anarchism) from the late 19th century to the interwar period?
The New York Public Library has it, but you can't check it out. I've spent a fair amount of the evening looking for it online and officially give up. But I very much look forward to reading your take!
this sounds quite interesting (paperback on the way). while i am thoroughly enjoying the book clubs, the weekend reading, and the bongland diaries, can we please get some more gay sex?
Very neat. Excited to read this!
Post WW1 is well summarized by Churchill "The World Crisis: Aftermath" the last in a series.
He was of course still deeply involved in post war affairs.
He was not at Versailles but well informed.
>Part of the problems that occurred after WW1 was Wilson insisted on a Full Academic Review and completion of the American Survey of the various nations *as they descended into chaos* instead of giving clear simple directions and the vision of the future they could expect.
So Germany, Greece-Turkey and the Balkans, Russia burned while the academics gathered information.
In the end the Big 5* decided the future, in the interim Wilson blew it at home by insulting the entire Republican party including the voters, never mind the elected Senate and the USA withdrew.
Big 5: GB, FR, IT, USA, JP [Japan].
In a rare win for "things in the US that still actually work", my copy has arrived via inter-library loan. It has been withdrawn from its university library, hundreds of miles away, a grand total of 13 times since its 1965 arrival, and from the proximity of the dates I'm fairly sure that four of the withdrawals were from the same individual. (What must it be like to devote years of your life to toiling away on obscure political subjects, only for nobody at all to read your output? Couldn't be me!) In any case, for just $3 the book is mine for two weeks.
I thought this might be quite a dry read but, being just one chapters in, I am enjoying not just the historical lesson of an era (19th century Bavaria; we are still scene-setting) of which I'm almost totally ignorant, but Mitchell's economy of language. On Emperor Ludwig, between the descriptions of the genius of his autarkic rule, a moment of measured, faint praise: "He was successful insofar as he may be credited with the fact that Bavaria had scarcely any social element by 1948 which could be described as a proletariat."
Next chapter: the introduction of Eisner into this Bavaria - the post-monarchial, newly-industrial, newly-party political, whose sweeping away of the old world for the new happened in less than a century... looking forward to seeing what happens.
Maybe you've explained this somewhere, but does one have to be a paid subscriber to join the book club? It looks like some good books are sprinkled in here!