Trump Archives - New Historian

How do you define fascism? Like any political ideology, it is difficult to define fascism convincingly; debates over definition clouded by historical examples serving as inescapable archetypes. The Oxford Dictionary defines fascism as: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” Taking this as a basis, elements of fascism have been seen throughout US history, and in particular in the 1930s. Fascism Versus the New Deal Fascism took hold in Europe in the wake of economic calamity. In the USA, the response to the Great Depression was the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency and the implementation of the New Deal – a program of government investment, extension of federal authority and welfare spending designed to stabilise the US economy. Roosevelt was elected president four times, but his liberal politics were far from universally popular. Like Europe, there were those in the US who felt fascism was the only way forward. Father Charles Coughlin Eleven days after the Kristallnacht massacre of Jews in Germany, Michigan based Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin took to the airwaves in defence of the Nazis’ actions. A swift backlash ensued against Coughlin, culminating in New York radio station WMCA cancelling his show. Nevertheless, Coughlin continued broadcasting from his Michigan church. Father Coughlin associated Judaism with Russian Communism. To him, the actions of the Nazis, including their blatant antisemitism, were a means to fight off Communists. Speaking to a reporter in the late 1930s about the path of politics in the USA, Coughlin said: “I take the road of fascism”. A few years earlier the charismatic priest had formed his own political party, and even made a run for the White House. In 1933 the radio stations carrying Coughlin’s broadcasts had a potential audience of some 40 million people. Rallying against internationalism, bankers and Jews, Coughlin started a new political organisation in 1934, the National Union for Social Justice. Two years later, the party had a candidate in the presidential election. At a rally in Rhode Island, Coughlin declared, “I shall have the courage to stand up and advocate the use of bullets”, promising “more bullet holes in the White House than you could count with an adding machine.” Coughlin’s candidate, William Lemke, suffered an embarrassing defeat by winning just nine hundred thousand votes. Combined with the backlash against his post Kristallnacht broadcast, Coughlin was increasingly pushed into retiring from public life. The German American Bund Father Coughlin wasn’t alone in backing Hitler and the Nazis. Supporters of the German American Bund remained loyal to the Nazis throughout the Great Depression, and into the 1940s. The German American Bund was essentially an organisation of ethnic Germans living in the USA. Its support of Nazism stretched to antisemitism, anti-communism, and an insistence that the USA should remain neutral in the Second World War. German American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn was regarded as the leading antisemite in the USA. His organisation carried out a range of activities around the USA, publishing books and magazines, organising rallies, even maintaining youth organisations similar to the Hitler Youth in Germany. Kuhn was ultimately imprisoned for embezzling funds, while other leaders of the group were arrested as the USA headed towards war with Germany. With support waning, the organisation was eventually banned after the USA entered the fray of World War Two. Father Charles Coughlin and the German American Bund are two American Fascist movements that existed in the run up to the Second World War. There were others, such as the Black Legion; a Ku Klux Klan splinter group which indulged in acts of terrorism and vigilantism, but what makes the German American Bund and Father Coughlin so shocking is the level of public respectability their representatives and their ideas seemed to win. Fascist governments never took hold in the USA in the twentieth century like they did in Spain, Italy, Germany and elsewhere in Europe. However, that doesn’t mean that fascism hasn’t left its mark on US history. ]]>

The Great Wall of China Trump’s proposed wall would pale in comparison to the impressive Great Wall of China, which at its peak measured 13,170.7 miles (21,196.18 km) in length. Even today, what remains of the wall (5,500 miles, 8,851 km) is more than twice the length of the Mexican-US border. Consisting of a series of fortifications and connected walls, the Great Wall of China was first conceived in the third century BCE by Emperor Qin Shi Huang as a means of protecting the Chinese Empire from incursion by barbarian nomads. The most recognisable and well preserved section of the Great Wall was built centuries after the project began, during the Ming Dynasty from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century CE. Although still a powerful symbol of Chinese culture, the Great Wall of China ultimately failed to prevent invaders entering China. In the seventeenth century, Manchus from central and southern Manchuria broke through the wall, attacking Beijing and bringing about the end of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the Qing Dynasty. Nevertheless, the wall still remains one of the most impressive architectural feats in history. Hadrian’s Wall For nearly 300 years Hadrian’s Wall marked the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire, affording it enormous symbolic as well as defensive importance. The wall’s construction was ordered by Roman Emperor Hadrian on his visit to Britain in 122 CE. At its peak it stretched over 73 miles, crossing northern Britain. The wall had a selection of small castles and towers at regular intervals along its length, meaning there were observation points every third of a mile. Much like the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall was built as a defensive measure to keep out nomadic tribes, in this instance the Picts of Scotland. In 180 CE, during a major war, a tribe from the north managed to cross over the wall, attacking a fort and killing the Roman general and troops stationed there. The attack likely led to changes in how the wall was manned and its defensive system, but it remained a prominent military installation throughout the Roman occupation of Britain. Following the Roman withdrawal in the fifth century however, Hadrian’s wall started to fall into disrepair, the stones used in its construction being quarried to build castles, churches and houses. The Berlin Wall The most short lived of the three walls, but perhaps the most traumatic for those affected by it. The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Cold War, and a Europe divided into East and West. Measuring 87 miles long and around 3 metres high, it came to embody a huge cultural divide. In August 1961 the Communist Government of the German Democratic Republic started work on the barbed wire and concrete Antifascistischer Schutzwall (antifascist bulwark) between East and West Berlin. The GDR government claimed the wall was built to prevent ‘western fascists’ attempting to infiltrate East Germany’s socialist society, but in large part its creation was intended to stop the stream of migration west out of the Soviet Union. When completed, the wall embodied the separation of East and West Berlin. Travel between the two sides became virtually impossible, except for diplomats and officials who went through designated checkpoints – the most famous of which was Checkpoint Charlie. On 9th November 1989 the GDR announced that Berliners could once again cross the wall whenever they pleased. An ecstatic atmosphere descended on the city, citizens rushed to climb over the wall, or took pickaxes to it in an attempt to bring it down. 138 people were killed attempting to cross the Berlin Wall over the 28 years of its existence, either by being shot or through accidents associated with their attempts to evade the authorities. The three walls mentioned served their purposes with varying levels of success. Beyond their intended practical uses however, they are so well remembered for the symbolic barriers they represented. It is this that can perhaps provide the biggest insight into the proposed US-Mexico border wall.]]>