This powerful and unsettling book tells the story of how fascism came dangerously close to taking root in Britain. The story begins with the White Feather Brigade; women from the Suffrage movement who, abandoned by Emmeline Pankhurst at the outbreak of the First World War, turned their energies toward pressuring men to enlist. When peace came and these women were still (largely) denied the vote, many found themselves drawn to a new ideology that promised recognition and purpose: British fascism. From the early stirrings of the British Fascisti through the turmoil of the General Strike, The Rise of Fascism in Britain also traces the path that led Oswald Mosley to prominence, examines his close ties to both Hitler and members of the British Royal Family, and his ultimate downfall with the outbreak of the Second World War. Rigorous yet accessible, this book reveals how fear of socialism, national trauma, and misplaced patriotism combined to create fertile ground for authoritarian ideas, and how, ultimately, fascism in Britain failed to take hold.
