1
NAZI GERMANY AND FASCIST ITALY: COMPARISONS, CONTRASTS, COLLABORATIONS
Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Office hours: T 2-3 or by appointment, @ 4 Washington Square North, 253
rb68@nyu.edu
Prof. Stephen Gross
Office hours: T 2-3 or by appointment, @ KJCC, room 612, stephengross@nyu.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Fascism, so one recent history has argued, posed the greatest challenge to liberal
democracy during the twentieth century. Fascism offered new answers to the
problems arising from mass politics, industrialization, technology, and imperialism,
and in doing so it sought to remake society, the continent of Europe, and the world.
Our goal will be to develop a critical understanding of fascism as a product of the
problems arising from modernity in order to understand how and why much of
Europe took a violent path that ended in world war and genocide.
This course will examine, comparatively, the Italian and German dictatorships. We
will begin by exploring Fascism’s intellectual roots and how fascist movements
seized power in Italy and Germany. We will then study how fascist regimes, once in
power, cultivated popular support and legitimacy; how they developed their own
systems of economics, biopolitics, gender, and the cult of the dictator; how these
regimes shaped the everyday lives of their subjects; and how they radicalized with
the onset of war, the Axis alliance, and imperial expansion.
COURSE MATERIALS
Readings should be done in the order listed on the syllabus. All required and
recommended readings are available on the course site on NYU Classes.
COURSE GRADE
Final seminar paper, 60%; book review, 10%, class participation, 30%. Students
must meet with us to discuss their final paper topics.
SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND READINGS
Jan 27:
Introduction
Marinetti, “Futurist Manifesto” (1909).
The First Program of the Nazi Party (1920).
Valois, “What is Fascism?” (1925).
Gentile, “Fascism a Total Conception of Life” (1925).
Communist International, “Definition of Fascism” (1928).
Recommended
Griffin, “A New Ideal Type of Generic Fascism.”
2
Paxton, “Introduction,” in Anatomy of Fascism, 3-23.
Feb 3:
Frames and Approaches to the Study of Fascisms
Bessel, “Introduction”
Kershaw, “The essence of Nazism: form of fascism, brand of
totalitarianism, or unique phenomenon?”
Griffin, “The Fascist Quest to Regenerate Time.”
Ben-Ghiat, “The Lesser Evil”
Recommended
Mason, “Whatever Happened to Fascism”
Corner, “Italian Fascism: Whatever Happened to Dictatorship”
Feb 10:
Fascist Origins and Rise to Power in Italy
Knox, “Italy and Germany from unification to militant dictatorship,
1860–1933,”
De Grand, “The Rise of Fascism and Nazism”
and “The March to Power”
Gentile, "The Myth of National Regeneration in Italy”
Millan, “The Institutionalization of Squadrism.”
Primary Sources: Mussolini, “Program of the National Fascist Party”
(1921), and Mussolini, “Speech of 3 January 1925”
Feb 17:
Nazi Origins and Rise to Power in Germany
Schumann, Political Violence in the Weimar Republic, Introduction, CHs
1–4, 10–11, and Conclusion.
Weitz, “Revolution and Counterrevolution from the Right.”
Evans, “The Legacy of the Past.”
Primary Source: Joseph Goebbels, “National Socialism or
Bolshevism?” (1925).
Feb 24:
The Dictators
Schivelbusch, “Leadership”
Kershaw, The "Hitler Myth,"Introduction and CHs. 1-4
Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle, 42-88
Weber, “The Sociology of Charismatic Authority,”
Duggan, Fascist Voices, 213-248
Primary Source: Film clips of Mussolini and Triumph of the Will
March 3:
Public and Private Spheres: Italy
De Grand, “The Exercise of Power”
Habermas, “The Public Sphere”
Ebner, Ordinary Violence in Mussolini’s Italy, 1-22
Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle, 139-147
Primary Source: Rocco, “The Political Doctrine of Fascism” (1925)
3
March 10:
Public and Private Spheres: Germany
Eley, “Driving for Rule, Extracting Consent”
Gellately, Backing Hitler, CH 2–4
Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany, CH 1, 3, 5-6, 10-11, 13
Primary Source: Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich, 1–61.
March 17:
Spring Break
March 24:
Fascism and Gender
De Grand, “Culture and Society”
Horn, Social Bodies, 75-94
Benadusi, “Private Life and Public Morals”
Herzog, “Sex and the Third Reich”
Primary Sources: Hitler, “Speech to the National Socialist Women’s
Organization” (1934); Sarfatti, “Mussolini the Man”
March 31:
Fascism, Biopolitics, and Racial Hygiene
Esposito, “Totalitarianism or Biopolitics”
Foucault, “Society Must be Defended,” March 17, 1976 lecture
Horn, Social Bodies, 18-34, 42-65
Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene, Introduction, CHs 1–2, 4, and 10
Primary Sources: Gross, “National Socialist Racial Policy” (1934)
http://www.csustan.edu/history/faculty/weikart/gerhist.htm
Mussolini, “The Ascension Day Speech” (1927)
April 7:
Soft Power and the Economy
Gross, Export Empire, Introduction and CHs 5–7
de Grazia, “Nationalizing Women”
Scarpellini, Material Nation, CHs 5–6
Primary Sources: Daitz, “Creation of a Reich Commission for
Grossraumwirtschaft” (May 31, 1940);
Mussolini, “Address to the National Corporative Council”
(1933)
April 14:
The Spanish Civil War and the Axis Alliance
Ben-Ghiat, “Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany”
Wedekind, “The Sword of Science.”
Stone, “Italo-German-Portuguese Collaboration in the Spanish
Civil War,”
Helstosky, “Fascist Food Politics”
April 21:
Visions of Empire: Eastern Europe and Africa
Knox, “Expansionist Zeal, Fighting Power and Staying Power in the
Italian and German Dictatorships”
Ben-Ghiat and Fuller, “Introduction,”
4
Ben-Ghiat, Fascist Modernities, 123-131, 140-157
Barrera, “Mussolini’s Colonial Race Laws”
Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire, Introduction and CHs 1-3, 17
Primary Source: Maschmann, “A German Colonizer of Poland”
(1939); “Manifesto of Race” (1938)
Recommended
Atkinson, “Embodied Resistance”
April 28:
Fascism and the Second World War
Bartov, Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich,
Introduction and CHs 1, 4, and conclusion
Knox, Hitler’s Italian Allies, Intro, CHs 3-4
Sadkovich, “The Italo-Greek War”
Mazower, Inside Hitler’s Greece, Introduction, Parts I and III.
Film: Angelo’s Film (Forgacs, 1999) DVD 2804
May 5:
The Holocaust
Wildt, Generation of the Unbound
Jarausch and Geyer, “War, Genocide, Extermination”
Bergen, War and Genocide, Preface, CHs 1, 5–8
Steinberg, “Partners in Genocide? Anti-Semitism and the Axis
Alliance”
Primary Source: Debenedetti, 16 October 1943/Eight Jews, 36-55
5
Works Cited
David Atkinson, “Embodied Resistance”
Omer Bartov, Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Fascist Modernities: Italy, 1922–1945
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, “Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany”
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, “The Lesser Evil. Italian Fascism in/and the Totalitarian Equation,”
Iin Helmut Dubiel, ed. The Lesser Evil
Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Fuller, “Introduction” in Ben-Ghiat and Fuller, eds.,
Italian Colonialism
Lorenzo Benadusi, “Private Life and Public Morals”
Giacomo De Benedetti, 16 October 1943/Eight Jews
Doris Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust
Richard Bessel, “Introduction” Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Comparisons and
Contrasts
Werner Daitz, “Creation of a Reich Commission for Grossraumwirtschaft,” (May 31,
1940)
Victoria de Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women, 41-76, 116-165
Victoria de Grazia, “Nationalizing Women,” in de Grazia, ed., The Sex of Things
Christopher Duggan, Fascist Voices: an Intimate History of Mussolini’s Italy
Geoff Eley, “Driving for Rule, Extracting Consent: Bases of Political Order under
Fascism,” in Nazism as Fascism
Roberto Esposito, “Totalitarianism or Biopolitics”
Richard Evans, “The Legacy of the Past,” in The Coming of the Third Reich
Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s
Italy
Michel Foucault, “Society Must be Defended,” (3.17.1976 lecture)
Robert Gellately, Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany
Roger Griffin, “A New Ideal Type of Generic Fascism,” in
The Nature of Fascism, 26–55
Stephen G. Gross, Export Empire: German Soft Power in Southeastern Europe, 1890–
1945, (forthcoming manuscript)
Walter Gross, “National Socialist Racial Policy” (1934)
http://www.csustan.edu/history/faculty/weikart/gerhist.htm
Carol Helstosky, “Fascist Food Politics”
Dagmar Herzog, “Sex and the Third Reich,” in Sex After Fascism: Memory and
Morality in Twentieth-Century Germany
Adolf Hitler, “Speech to the National Socialist Women’s Organization” (1934)
David Horn, Social Bodies: Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity
Carl Ipsen, Dictating Demography
Konrad Jarausch and Michael Geyer, “War, Genocide, Extermination: The War
Against the Jews in an Era of World Wars,” in Jarausch and Geyer (ed.)
Shattered Past
Ian Kershaw, “The essence of Nazism: form of fascism, brand of totalitarianism, or
unique phenomenon?” in The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of
Interpretation,
Ian Kershaw, The "Hitler Myth": Image and Reality in the Third Reich,
6
Victor Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich: LTI, Lingua Tertii Imperii: a
Philologist’s Notebook, (1957)
Macgregor Knox, “Conquest, Foreign and Domestic, in Fascist Italy and Nazi
Germany,” in Common Destiny: Dictatorship, Foreign Policy, and War in Fascist
Italy and Nazi Germany
Macgregor Knox, Hitler’s Italian Allies: Royal Armed Forces, Fascist Regime, and the
War of 1940-43
Malaparte, Kaputt, (1944)
“Manifesto of Race” (1938)
Melita Maschmann, “A German Colonizer of Poland” (1939)
Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe
Mark Mazower, Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–1944
Philip Morgan, Italian Fascism
Benito Mussolini, “The Ascension Day Speech” (1927)
Robert Paxton, “Introduction,” in Anatomy of Fascism.
Detlev Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and
Racism in Everyday Life
Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis
Lidia Santarelli, “Muted Violence: Italian War Crimes in Occupied Greece,”
Emmanuela Scarpellini, Material Nation
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Three New Deals in Comparison: Reflections on Roosevelt’s
America, Mussolini’s Italy, and Hitler’s Germany, 1933–1939
Dirk Schumann, Political Violence in the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933: Fight for the
Streets and Fear of Civil War
Jonathan Steinberg, “Partners in Genocide? Anti-Semitism and the Axis Alliance,” in
Kallis (ed), Fascism Reader
Glyn Stone, “Italo-German-Portuguese Collaboration in the Spanish Civil War,” in
Gaynor Johnson (ed.), The International Context of the Spanish Civil War
Max Weber, “The Sociology of Charismatic Authority,” in Gerth and Mills, From Max
Weber
Michael Wedekind, “The Sword of Science: German Scholars and National Socialist
Annexation Policy in Slovenia and Northern Italy,” in German Scholars and
Ethnic Cleansing
Eric Weitz, “Revolution and Counterrevolution from the Right,” in Weimar Germany:
Promise and Tragedy
Michael Wildt, Generation of the Unbound: The Leadership Corps of the Reich Security
Main Office