1st Edition
Cultures of Post-War British Fascism
In Post-War Britain cultural interventions were a feature of fascist parties and movements, just as they were in Europe. This book makes a new major contribution to existing scholarship which begins to discuss British fascism as a cultural phenomenon. A collection of essays from leading academics, this book uncovers how a cultural struggle lay at the heart of the hegemonic projects of all varieties of British fascism. Such a cultural struggle is enacted and reflected in the text and talk, music and literature of British fascism.
Where other published works have examined the cultural visions of British fascism during the inter-war period, this book is the first to dedicate itself to detailed critical analysis of the post-war cultural landscapes of British fascism. Through discussions of cultural phenomena such as folk music, fashion and neo-nazi fiction, among others, Cultures of Post-War British Fascism builds a picture of Post-War Britain which emphasises the importance of understanding these politics with reference to their corresponding cultural output.
This book is essential reading for undergraduates and postgraduates studying far right politics and British history.
Introduction 1. Cultural regeneration :Mosley and the Union Movement Janet Dack 2. History and cultural heritage: The far right and the ‘Battle for Britain’ Steven Woodbridge 3. Cultures of space: Spatialising the National Front Thomas Linehan 4. Securing the future of our race: Women in the culture of the modern-day BNP Martin Durham 5. British neo-Nazi fiction: Colin Jordan’s Merrie England – 2000 and The Uprising Paul Jackson 6.When popular culture met the far right: Cultural encounters with post-war British fascism Nigel Copsey 7. Subcultural style: Fashion and Britain’s extreme right Emily Turner-Graham 8. British, European and White: Cultural constructions of identity in post-war British fascist music Ryan Shaffer 9. Nazi punks folk off: Leisure, nationalism, cultural identity and the consumption of metal and folk music Karl Spracklen 10. The ‘cultic milieu’ of Britain’s ‘New Right’: Meta-political ‘fascism’ in contemporary Britain Graham Macklin 11. ‘Cultural-Marxism’ and the British National Party: A transnational discourse John E. Richardson
Biography
Nigel Copsey is Professor of Modern History at Teesside University. He is the author of Anti-Fascism in Britain (2000) and Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy (2004; 2008). He is also co-editor of British Fascism, the Labour Movement and the State (2005); Varieties of Anti-Fascism: Britain in the Inter-War Period (2010); and British National Party: Contemporary Perspectives (2011). With Graham Macklin, he is series editor of Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right.
John E. Richardson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University. His research interests include structured social inequalities, British fascism, critical discourse studies and argumentation. His recent books include Analysing Fascist Discourse (co-edited with Wodak, 2013), Advances in Critical Discourse Studies (co-edited with Krzyżanowski, Machin, Wodak 2014) and Language and Journalism (2010). He is currently writing a book analysing the multimedia discourses of British fascism (Ibidem Verlag). He is Editor of the international journal Critical Discourse Studies.
"For years scholars denied the very existence of a fascist culture and largely ignored post-war developments of fascism as a political force. Cultures of Post-war British Fascism lies at the cutting edge of the new wave in fascist studies. It reveals the complex ideological, creative, and mythic contortions of British fascists who still find ways to assert the imminent or ultimate triumph of their race and creed over decadence and the new enemies of national rebirth despite the drastic shrinking of fascism’s political space since 1945."
Professor Roger Griffin, Oxford Brookes University.
"This exciting new collection of essays, by the leaders in the field of British fascist studies, offers the first and a very illuminating cultural perspective on the post-war extreme Right in Britain. It follows the major paradigm shift in fascist studies to a cultural interpretation of political belief systems. By exposing the way post-war fascists have engaged with, aped, and tried to destabilize both high and popular culture in Britain, this in-depth study will make us better equipped to challenge the appeal of fascism."
Dr Julie Gottlieb, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Sheffield
