A 

Abortion
Accounting
Advertising
Africa
African-American Studies
Aging
Agriculture
American Indian Studies
Anthropology
Archaeology
Architecture
Argumentative
Art: Artists (Alphabetized)
Art: General
Become an Affiliate and Earn $$$
Biographies (Alphabetized)
Book Reviews (Non-Fiction) (Alphabetized)
Business: Companies (Alphabetized)
Business: General
Business: Industries (Alphabetized)
Business: International
Business: Small
California
Canada
Caribbean
Child Abuse
China
Communication: Journalism
Communication: Language & Speech
Communication: Media
Communication: Non-Verbal
Communication: Television
Communication: Television & Children
Communism
Computer Science
Consumerism
Criminal Justice: General
Criminal Justice: Juvenile Delinquency
Criminal Justice: Police Science
Criminal Justice: Prisons
Cuba
Death & Dying: Euthanasia
Death & Dying: General
Death & Dying: Suicide
Drama: American
Drama: English
Drama: World
Drugs: Alcohol
Drugs: General
Economics: Banking
Economics: Economists (Alphabetized)
Economics: General
Economics: Inflation
Economics: International Trade
Economics: Macroeconomics
Economics: Microeconomics
Economics: Taxation
Education: Administration
Education: Curriculum
Education: General
Education: Higher
Education: Physical
Education: Psychology
Education: Reading
Education: Special
Education: Teaching Methods
Education: Theory
Energy: General
Energy: Nuclear
Energy: Solar
Environmental Studies
Evolution
Family & Marriage
Films: Artists (Alphabetized)
Films: General
Finance: Companies (Alphabetized)
Finance: General
Former Soviet Union: Post-1990
France
Gender & Sexuality
Geography
Germany
History: Ancient Greek & Roman
History: European
History: Great Britain
History: U.S. (After 1865)
History: U.S. (Before 1865)
History: U.S. Presidency
History: U.S. Presidents (Alphabetized)
Homosexuality
Immigration
India
Indonesia
International Relations: Arms Control
International Relations: Cold War
International Relations: Non-U.S.
International Relations: U.S.
Japan
Jewish Studies
Korea
Labor
Latin America
Law: Business
Law: Capital Punishment
Law: General
Law: International & Non-U.S.
Law: Supreme Court
Leadership
Literature, American: Authors (Alphabetized)
Literature, American: Faulkner
Literature, American: Fitzgerald
Literature, American: General
Literature, American: Hawthorne
Literature, American: Hemingway
Literature, American: Melville
Literature, American: Poe
Literature, American: Steinbeck
Literature, American: Twain
Literature, English: Authors (Alphabetized)
Literature, English: Chaucer
Literature, English: Conrad
Literature, English: Dickens
Literature, English: General
Literature, English: Joyce
Literature, English: Lawrence
Literature, English: Shakespeare
Literature, English: Swift
Literature, General: Children
Literature, General: Classic (Greek & Roman)
Literature, General: Russian
Literature, General: World
Management: General
Management: Japanese
Management: Motivation
Management: Theory
Management: Women
Marketing: Companies (Alphabetized)
Marketing: General
Marketing: Plans
Mathematics
Medical: Aids
Medical: Dentistry
Medical: Diseases & Disorders (Alphabetized)
Medical: General
Medical: Nursing
Mexican-American Studies
Mexico
Middle East: Egypt
Middle East: General
Middle East: O.P.E.C.
Military
Music: Classical
Music: General
Mythology
Nutrition
Parapsychology/Occult
Philosophy: Ancient Greek
Philosophy: Descartes
Philosophy: Eastern
Philosophy: General
Philosophy: Kant
Philosophy: Sartre
Poetry: American
Poetry: English
Poetry: Milton
Poetry: World
Political Science: Elections & Campaigns
Political Science: Foreign
Political Science: Lobbyists & Pressure Groups
Political Science: Machiavelli
Political Science: Mill
Political Science: Political Theory
Political Science: U.S.
Psychology: Behaviorism
Psychology: Child & Adolescent
Psychology: Disorders
Psychology: Dreams
Psychology: Experimental
Psychology: Freud
Psychology: General
Psychology: Jung
Psychology: Physiology
Psychology: Piaget
Psychology: Rogers
Psychology: Social
Psychology: Testing
Psychology: Therapies
Public Administration: General
Public Administration: Government Agencies (Alphabetized)
Racism
Real Estate
Recreation & Leisure
Religion: Eastern
Religion: General
Religion: Islam
Religion: The Bible
Research: Completed Studies (With Statistics & Results)
Research: Designs & Proposals
Research: Statistics & Methodology
Russia: Pre-1917 Revolution
Science: Astronomy
Science: Biology
Science: General
Science: Genetics
Sociology: Durkheim
Sociology: General
Sociology: Marx
Sociology: Social Problems
Sociology: Social Theory
Sociology: Social Welfare
Sociology: Weber
Soviet Union: 1917-1990
Sports: Drugs
Sports: General
Technology
Transportation: Automotive
Transportation: Aviation
Transportation: General
Transportation: Railroads
Urban Studies
Vietnam
Women Studies
 

FASCIST DICTATORSHIPS.   Term Paper ID:29136 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Ideological goal of Hitler and Mussolini.... More...

12 Pages / 2700 Words 12 sources, 31 Citations, MLA Format $48.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Ideological goal of Hitler and Mussolini. Concept that foreign conquest and war played in Nazi German and Fascist Italian foreign policy. Hitler's use of propaganda and ideology to shape German political events. Power of the Hitler myth. Mussolini's doctrine of fascism; concept of nationalism. Fascist aggression. Paper Introduction: Historian MacGregor Knox is noted for his comparative studies of fascist dictatorships, notably Italian Fascism and German Nazism. In several works, including Common Destiny: Dictatorship, Foreign Policy, and War in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and Hitler's Italian Allies: Royal Armed Forced, Fascist Regime, and the War of 1940-43, Knox contends that fascism attempted to create an all-embracing system of belief in which the military was viewed as an ideologically driven force. His major argument is that both Hitler and Mussolini shared the ideological goal of transforming their citizens into "fighting creatures" and that "War" was an essential tool to achieve this objective. This paper will address the role that the concept of "foreign conquest" and "war" played in Nazi German and Fascist Itali Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Bosworth, The Italian Dictatorship: Problems andPerspectives in the Interpretation of Mussolini and Fascism (New York:Arnold, 1998), 23 ff. Indeed, inMussolini's hands, nationalism was transmuted into the authority of Italy'sFascist Party, which aimed "to bind the Italian people together, toovercome the divisions that weakened their country,"[xxi] and, plainly, tomobilize them for military action. [xxxi]Ibid. (1991). Buchheim states that the purpose ofthe Schutz Staffel, as it was called, ultimately became the personalprotective arm of Hitler. Mussolini's grand design has been characterized as a project ofreclaiming for Italy its greatest symbol of nationalist history,positioning it at the center of a new Roman Empire, notably through thedoctrine of Romanita, which drew parallels between the Roman Republic andthe liberal Italian state on one hand, and between the Roman Empire andMussolini's regime on the other.[xxvi] There was, however, a gap betweenMussolini's conception and the actual implementation of fascistimperialism, according to Bosworth, who characterizes Italy under Mussolinias "least of the Great Powers,"[xxvii] despite such adventures as theinvasion of Ethiopia in 1936 and Albania in early 1939.[xxviii] Thatopinion seems to have been shared in Germany, where the "Wehrmacht had alow opinion of Italian military power."[xxix] Even though Mussolini had moved against both Albania and Ethiopiaunilaterally, he did not consider Italy prepared to mobilize for all-outwar in 1939; he needed about three more years. Socialists, he said, "have never examined the problem of nations [but only of classes. "The Fallen Hero: The Myth of Mussolini and Fascist Women in the Italian Social Republic (1943-5)." Journal of Contemporary History 31 (January 1996): 99-124.Mussolini, Benito. In that regard,Fraddosio describes[xxv] the formation of the Women's Auxiliary Service,which enabled women (mostly middle class) to choose between becoming wivesand mothers and joining the military struggle; in either case the choicewas driven by cultivation of a paternalistic charisma for Mussolini. . J. Any political party or movement that denies this is doomed to failure. [iv]Ibid., 11 (Hitler quoted). Terence Ball and Richard Dagger. Ed. "It is up to the fist to take," he added. B. As Shirer explains, the preamble of the agreementstraightforwardly positioned the two countries as unapologetic aggressors. And where was that space? BibliographyBosworth, R. The 'sentiment' of nationality exists; it cannot be denied." And so Mussolini set out to affirm and take political advantage of the widely shared sentiment of nationalism.[xvii] Wiskemann rather drily notes[xviii] that Mussolini changed his views--never very coherent in the first place--with some regularity, only in 1932actually reducing them to written form. [xvi]Ibid., 157. Thus it can be said that events overtook Mussolini's fatuousnationalism and grandiose plans for a new Roman Empire. Broszatchronicles the waves of arrests in 1933 and 1934 and the initialestablishment of the camps, as well as the continued and expanding role ofconcentration camps throughout Hitler's regime, and he relates this to thestate-of-seige mentality prevailing in the Third Reich. What ensued was "Bloody Week,"in which "regular and freecorps troops under the direction of [new DefenseMinister Gustav] Noske and the command of General von Luettwitz crushed theSpartacists."[ii] The army acted in response to a promise by Weimar'sSocial Democrat party leader Friedrich Ebert to oppose Bolshevism under allcircumstances. [xii]Ibid., 26 . B. [xv]William Carr, Hitler: A Study in Personality and Politics (NewYork: Edward Arnold, 1979), 131. Carr believes thatHitler was an opportunist who happened onto--and then fully exploited--aset of historical circumstances that allowed him to actually implementirrational plans for what he calls "the world power thesis."[xv] As therealities of the results of German aggression intruded on the stability ofthe Third Reich, Hitler maintained his irrational goals and backed them upwith force. The power of the Hitler "myth," conceivedand developed during the years of the Weimar Republic, increased, and wasto be employed as a nationalistic rallying symbol, owing to Hitler'sundoubted charisma. [v]Kershaw, 23. In1945, at the close of the war, Mussolini and his mistress were hanged by amob in Rome. New York: Simon and Schuster, 196 .Thompson, Doug. This little city on the border seems to me the symbol of a greatmission."[iv] Later, according to Kershaw, Hitler adjusted his views ofpolitical mission, "partly no doubt in the light of his admiration forMussolini's success in Italy."[v] Having adjusted his views in response to Mussolini's experience inItaly, Hitler made them his own, in part by force of personality, in partby his deliberate mythicization of German history. Article V ofthe Pact of Steel, as Shirer notes, also included a prohibition againsteither party's concluding a separate peace, as had been done when Russiaand Germany concluded the Great War. The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism. Historian MacGregor Knox is noted for his comparative studies offascist dictatorships, notably Italian Fascism and German Nazism. "The Concentration Camps 1933-45." Anatomy of the SS State. 2 th Century Journey: The Nightmare Years, 193 -194 . The protectivecustody camps for enemies of the State became centres of forced labour,bilogical and medical experiments and the physical extermination of Jewishand other unwanted life." (1:4 ). Their uniform and insignia (black cap with death's-head badge and swastika arm band with black border) showed that they were expressly intended to be the successor organization to the 1923 "Hitler Assault Squad."'[vii] Charismatic leaders, whether for good or ill, "inspire extraordinaryperformance in followers as well as build their trust, faith, and belief intheir leader."[viii] This is consistent with Kershaw's description of theFuhrer cult,[ix] which as a matter of party policy was meant to stand as aproxy for virtually any disagreement or potential ambiguity that might beencountered in the unfolding political environment of Weimar (and laterNazi) Germany. . New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972.Broszat, Martin. Martin's Press, 1969), passim. New York: Walker and Company, 1968.Buchheim, Hans. New York: Manchester University Press, 1991.Visser, Romke. 288-97.Shirer, William. New York: St. Among the first moves was to reestablish the SA, which graduallymerged into what was to become the SS. . [xxviii]Shirer, Rise, 469. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. [xiv]Shirer, Nightmare, 365. New York: Walker and Company, 1968.Carr, William. Contrary to Marx], the nation represents a stage in human [history] that has not yet been transcended. For Mussolini, World War I proved once and for all that Marx was wrong; workers do have a fatherland--at least they want to believe that they do. [ii]William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York:Simon and Schuster, 196 ), 55. [vii]Martin Broszat, "The Concentration Camps 1933-45," Anatomy of theSS State (New York: Walker and Company, 1968), 141. Kershaw cites the Weimarperiod's increasing gulf between the perceived need for "nationalintegration and unity and the patent lack of integration which prevailed inreality." This gulf, Kershaw continues, was enhanced and accentuated by three interlinked factors; the social and political disruption accompanying a practically simultaneous transition to nation-state, constitutional government (if strongly authoritarian in character), and industrialized society; the deep fragmentation of the political system (reflecting fundamental social cleavages); and, not least, the spread of a chauvinistic-imperialist ideology clamouring for a rightful "place in the sun" for Germany, a supposed have-not nation."[i] Hitler and the Nazis perpetuated the gulf but transformed itsemphasis, by means of propaganda. Thus when disaffected generals in 1938plotted to depose Hitler in a coup in protest of what was (wrongly)anticipated to be an abortive takeover of Czechoslovakia that would bedisastrous for the German army, their motives were not "to bring an end toan evil tyranny, but only to avert a lost war. Fascism in Italy: Its Development and Influence. State Control in Fascist Italy: Culture and Conformity, 1925-43. Wiskemann citesMussolini's educational programs, notably the Balilla curriculum, as"fundamental to the totalitarian conception, for the indoctrination of theyoung is essential long-term investment."[xxii] A 1932 textbook, Il BalillaVittorio, "wove patriotism, Catholicism and Fascism into a mythicalwhole."[xxiii] Such interweaving was evident in Mussolini's views of thesocial position of women as well, an issue on which Mussolini and theCatholic Church seem to have cooperated. [xxii]Wiskemann, 37. they were pure fraud."[xi] Kershaw also refersto Nazi "secular redemptionism soaked in pseudo-religious imagery,"employed in the service of "long-term 'cosmic' and 'utopian' goals, andthrough offering legitimation for action undertaken against ideological andracial 'enemies of the State.'"[xii] Once ideological and racial enemies are declared to exist, and oncethere is an acceptance of the notion of Germany's and the Fuhrer's uniqueearthly mission, it is but a short step toward transformation of nationalconsciousness toward entitlement to conquest and a war footing. "The SS--Instrument of Domination." Anatomy of the SS State. Hitler's Mein Kampf, written partly in the wakeof the abortive Munich beer hall putsch, put Nazi ideology decisively onthe record and had the effect of enabling Hitler to position himself andhis marginalized political movement favorably in the context of theweaknesses of the post-World War I Weimar Republic, which was beseiged bycommunists left and any of a variety of monarchist, militarist, andnationalist opponents of the terms of the Versailles Treaty on the right.One view of the matter is that the ostensibly democratic Weimar Republicwas floundering in a culture that had no experience of the vagaries ofdemocratic institutions and political pluralism. His omnivorous acceptance of Germanic mythicstereotypes and cultivation of the image of Romantic hero were decisive, aswas his assumption of the propaganda arm of the nascent Nazi Party in 192 .Thus he invested the commonplaces of his personal story with mysticsignificance, as he stated in Mein Kampf: "Today it seems to meprovidential that fate should have chosen Braunau am Inn as my birthplace.. But "those on the Right who tried to overthrow [theWeimar Republic], as Adolf Hitler was soon to learn [at Munich], got offeither free or with the lightest of sentences."[iii] The relevant point isthat in a culture that rewarded antipathy to communist ideology, Hitler'santicommunism on one hand and his positivist articulation of fascism on theother found ideological resonance of its own. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. In both Italy and Germany between the two world wars of the 2 thcentury, ideology, reinforced by charisma, functioned as the bridge betweenpolitical power and the deliberate pursuit of war as an instrument ofpolicy. "The Doctrine of Fascism." Ideals and Ideologies: A Reader. Hitler: A Study in Personality and Politics. [xvii]Terence Ball, and Richard Dagger, Political Ideologies and theDemocratic Ideal (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), 184-5. This paper will address the rolethat the concept of "foreign conquest" and "war" played in Nazi German andFascist Italian foreign policy. The Pact of Steel is a pretty definitive articulation of foreignpolicy as foreign conquest and foreign war, and it is consistent with thepolitical ideas that Hitler and Mussolini had each promoted in his owncountry prior to the signing of the papers. Hitler employed propaganda and ideology to interpret and indeed shapepolitical events in Germany. His major argumentis that both Hitler and Mussolini shared the ideological goal oftransforming their citizens into "fighting creatures" and that "War" was anessential tool to achieve this objective. [xxx]Ibid., 483. Howell, "The Ethics of CharismaticLeadership: Submission or Liberation?" Academy of Management Executives 6(May 1992): 43-54. "Fascist Doctrine and the Cult of the Romanita." Journal of Contemporary History (January 1992): 27 5-22.Wiskemann, Elizabeth. [xxiii]Ibid., 39. [ix]Kershaw, 27. In Mein Kampf, Shirerexplains, he first expounded the theory of Lebensraum, or living space forGermans, which can be interpreted as the foundation for war of conquest andcontrol of that space. [xxvi]Romke Visser, "Fascist Doctrine and the Cult of the Romanita,"Journal of Contemporary History (January 1992): 27 5-22. . New York: Bantam Books, 1984.Shirer, William. . On the other hand, whenHitler called a conference at Munich to get what he wanted peacefully, theplotters saw no justification for opposing him."[xiii] Hitler's taking ofthe Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia in bloodless victories "not onlystrengthened his position in Germany, especially with the army, whoseleaders had opposed him and been proved wrong, but also in Europe, whosepowers henceforth would try to make the best accommodation they could withhim."[xiv] Carr suggests that Hitler used Nazi ideology and his charisma topresent a rationale for the behavior of a group of conquest-driven fanaticswho needed to justify eastward expansion through Europe. [xi]Shirer, Nightmare, 238-9; 243. Hitler's readiness andeagerness to embark on a program of overtaking Europe by 1939 overtook anyGerman or Italian misgivings about proceeding against Poland and Russia.That explains the "Pact of Steel," or formal military alliance betweenGerman and Italy. But its pathway to status of praetorian guard wassuffused with the structures of military life, a decisive featureconsolidating Hitler's power. The duties envisaged were: protection of Hitler and prominent Party leaders, protection of Party meetings, preparatory measures for defence against any attack on the Party or its leaders and, last but not least, canvassing for Party members and for subscribers and advertisers for the Volkischer Beobachter [the Nazi Party newspaper]. The perceived necessity for a state of emergency gradually transformedthe whole structure of German life. Also important is the idea that the state isconsidered the icon of recourse for all individual members of the nation.Indeed, when Mussolini declares that Fascism "believes neither in thepossibility nor in the utility of perpetual peace,"[xx] he is preparingItaly for war, while also insisting on unquestioning loyalty to the causeof Fascist aggression undertaken in the nation's name. Avolio, and J.M. Martin's Press, 1969.----------------------- Notes [i]Ian Kershaw, The "Hitler Myth": Image and Reality in the ThirdReich (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 17. For both Hitler and Mussolini, there appears to have been a certainurgency in their zeal to articulate their views publicly and therebyconstruct a foundation and rationale for their claims to politicalleadership. [xxiv]Doug Thompson, State Control in Fascist Italy: Culture andConformity, 1925-43 (New York: Manchester University Press, 1991), 69. Thompson cites a Crusade forPurity, mainly against birth control and abortion, sponsored by Pius XII.An order from the Ministry of Interior was quite explicit: "Female officepersonnel are absolutely forbidden to wear dresses which are too short, towear makeup and to lacquer their nails."[xxiv] The social conservatism ofthe early regime later gave way to militarist concepts. Shirer, however, comments thatat the beginning of World War II in Poland, Mussolini "did not honor" theundertaking to immediately join Germany in battle, and that at Italy didindeed conclude a separate peace with the Allies when its dreams ofmilitary victory dissolved before Allied power.[xxxi] Indeed, the inchoateand corrupt political environment of Fascist Italy in general and Italy'searly defeat in World War II in particular overtook the grand schemes. Terence Ball and Richard Dagger (New York:HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1991), 289. . Shirer cites a 1935 "peace" speech in whichHitler pledged to observe the Versailles Treaty even while secretlyrearming and ordering the occupation of the Rhineland: "Hitler's 'peace'proposals always and always would [sound fine], for he was a masterpropagandist. J. Inseveral works, including Common Destiny: Dictatorship, Foreign Policy, andWar in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and Hitler's Italian Allies: RoyalArmed Forced, Fascist Regime, and the War of 194 -43, Knox contends thatfascism attempted to create an all-embracing system of belief in which themilitary was viewed as an ideologically driven force. . It was the discipline of war and the "front-line acquaintance of the clear and simple military hierarchy of order and values which were to shape Hitler's sense of values and turn this unstable dreamer unable to come to terms with the bourgeois world of work and order into the rigid fanatic with incredibly oversimplified ideas of war and order.[x] In a curious way, the Fuhrer cult, which served as a mobilizingnational focus, was grafted onto a rhetoric of conquest concealed (oddlyenough) by a rhetoric of peace. The case of Germany illustrates the nexus of opportunism, ideology,and political instability. If contrary to the wishes and hopes of the High Contracting Parties it should happen that one of them became involved in warlike complications with another Power or Powers, the other High Contracting Party would immediately come to its assistance as an ally and support it with all its military forces on land, at sea and in the air.[xxx] It is significant that Article III is not a declaration of mutualdefense against aggressors but instead an account of a whole range ofcircumstances under which Germany and Italy would present a united militaryfront against enemies, no matter how such enemies might have been acquired.Thus if Italy were to declare war, Germany would join Italy's effort, andif Germany were to declare war, Italy would join Germany's. By force then, if necessary.[vi] By the time Hitler came to power, a militarist ethos dominated Nazipraxis. [x]Karl Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship: The Origins,Structure, and Effects of National Socialism (New York: Praeger Publishers,1972), 66. [xviii]Elizabeth Wiskemann, Fascism in Italy: Its Development andInfluence (New York: St. The Schutz Staffel were not therefore an offshoot of the para- military formations but rather a Party cadre to be used for any political, technical or strong-arm purpose. The man of Fascism is an individual who is nation and fatherland, which is a moral law, binding together individuals and the generations into a tradition and a mission, suppressing the instinct for a life enclosed within the brief round of pleasure in order to restore within duty a higher life free from the limits of time and space: a life in which the individual, through the denial of himself, through the sacrifice of his own private interests, through death itself, realizes that completely spiritual existence in which his value as a man lies.[xix] This statement anticipates a romantic-mythic struggle, which itselfanticipates war of conquest. [xxix]Ibid., 482. [iii]Ibid., 6 -1; emphasis added. However, his discussion of doctrineof fascism, an almost point-for-point refutation of Marxism, shows acomplete, if chilling, familiarity with the concept of formulating politicsas ideology. The Italian Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of Mussolini and Fascism. "Only in Russia,' he wrote, 'and her vassal border states." And how was it to be taken? [xxvii]R. Actually . New York: Arnold, 1998.Bracher, Karl Dietrich. [xiii]Shirer, Rise, 358. [xx]Ibid., 293. are reslved to act side by side and with united forces to secure their living space." The core of the treaty was Article III. . New York: Edward Arnold, 1979.Fraddosio, Maria. "For even ininternal affairs," writes Broszat, "war was the element most characteristicof the National Socialist leadership: it was the great state of emergencywhich enabled it to carry through totalitarian control. This appears to have been reinforced by the fact thatGermany's ideological climate in general favored the right more than theleft. Later, Shirer says, Weimar officials "ruthlessly applied"treason laws to liberals who supported the republic but also publiclycriticized the German army's violations of the Versailles Treaty, by longprison sentences. The dominant theme is of course nationalism, which directlycontradicts the international emphasis of socialism, and nationalism isprogrammatically and specifically tied to the authority of the state--notsimply as arbiter of political life but as arbiter of personal, social, andspiritual life as well. Mussolini's work as a journalist--he was the Marxist editor of asocialist newspaper called Avanti before World War I--seems to havetransformed his ideological preferences. [T]he two nations, "united by the inner affinity of their ideologies . [vi]William Shirer, 2 th Century Journey: The Nightmare Years, 193 -194 (New York: Bantam Books, 1984), 215. After coming to power, Mussolini made Italy into a one-party state andengaged in fairly strict social engineering at home while pursuing militaryand industrial expansionism abroad--all of which was intended to reinforcethe legitimacy and strength of his ultranationalism. [xxi]Ball and Dagger, 184. [viii]B.J. Shirer cites Weimar's 1918 suppression of the Spartacists, led byRosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, who wanted to duplicate the Bolshevikrevolution in Bavaria and who threw up their barricades at just about thetime the Weimar Constitution was proclaimed. Carr terms Hitler's dreams of a hegemonic Germany as adolescentfantasy, inflected by Germany's humiliation after the Great War and his owninfantile ideas of authoritarian rigidity, and "incorrigibly optimisticabout final victory, impervious to ominous signs and portents of warweariness and defeatism."[xvi] In other words, war and conquest haddeveloped a life of their own, especially in the Fuhrer's mind. . [xxv]Maria Fraddosio, "The Fallen Hero: The Myth of Mussolini andFascist Women in the Italian Social Republic (1943-5)," Journal ofContemporary History 31 (January 1996): 1 ff. In addition to Hitler's charisma and sense of mission, Germany's warideology seems to have derived from the appeal that militarist values andthe structure of military life held for Hitler. [xix]Benito Mussolini, "The Doctrine of Fascism," Ideals andIdeologies: A Reader, ed. This was partly because heobserved that nationalism exerted a stronger force on the proletariat thanthe (Marxist) conception of a cross-national, class-conscious proletariatper se--and partly because Mussolini seems to have had the opportunist'sinstinct for co-opting sentiment in the service of his ambitions forpolitical power. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.