The fall of democracies - History 5

The interbellum is a very fascinating period. How could a damaged Europe while it recovered from the devastations of the Great War choose for the fast lane for yet another world war? We learned just recently how international politics failed and states embarked on an arms race that drew the world to war on the podcast New Books in History - Not your idea of WW2. It was not just that though, national politics also failed, especially democracy had to make way.

The 25th lecture of History 5 is dedicated to the failure of democracy in Germany and Italy and the hard to explain rise to power of their fascist dictators. Speaker is Margaret Anderson and I am not sure whether this is a guest lecture or a rerun of the 2008 lecture. Anderson is a great lecturer and she delivers History 5 in a very clear and organized way. She also has a knack for narrative suspense. (feed)

Take for example how she kicks off this lecture with telling the sordid details of two losers and how they fail in society. One a school teacher who is too easily tempered and eventually gets kicked out for knifing a student and consequently is arrested for loitering. The other a drop out from high school who sleeps in homeless shelters and tires to make ends meet by selling postcards in the street. Who are these men? Could they be Mussolini and Hitler in their youth?

More History 5:
Lecture mix up,
5 Podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog,
Berkeley History 5 by Thomas Laqueur 2010,
History 5 by Laqueur in previous years,
History 5 by Margaret Anderson.