It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
Hurrah For The Blackshirts!

Hurrah For The Blackshirts!

Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars

Summary

Britain is celebrated for having avoided the extremism, political violence and instability that blighted many European countries between the two world wars. But her success was a closer thing than has been realized. Disillusionment with parliamentary democracy, outbreaks of fascist violence and fears of communist subversion in industry and the Empire ran through the entire period.

Fascist organizations may have failed to attract the support they achieved elsewhere but fascist ideas were adopted from top to bottom of society and by men and women in all parts of the country. This book will demonstrate for the first time the true spread and depth of fascist beliefs - and the extent to which they were distinctly British.

Rich in anecdotes and extraordinary characters, Hurrah for the Blackshirts! shows us an inter-war Britain on the high-road to fascism but never quite arriving at its destination.

Reviews

  • This scholarly book shows how widespread fascism was before and in tandem with Mosley's New Party, the British Union of Fascists, half the Conservative Party and many royals
    Philip Howard, The Times

About the author

Martin Pugh

Martin Pugh was Professor of British History at Newcastle University and Research Professor in History at Liverpool John Moores University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the advisory panel of the BBC History Magazine, and the author of over twelve books on nineteenth- and twentieth-century history. He lives in Northumberland.
Learn More

More from this Author

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more